Need You More Than Ever
by xxxXXxEllexXXxxx
Summary: Gabriella has been distancing herself from everyone lately, including Troy why? Will she get past this with the wildcats help or will they only make things worse? Troyella with minor Chaylor, Zekepay and Jelsi
1. Chapter 1

**Need you more than ever**

**Hey guys this is my first fanfic, so please read and review. Constructive criticism is always needed!!!**

**Chapter 1**

**Gabriella's P.O.V**

"Ella! Wait up. I need to talk to you!" He yelled as he ran down the hallway towards me.

Inwardly I groaned, this was not what I needed of all things today this was not it. I slammed my locker and tried to run off, before he could catch up with me, no such luck.

He grabbed my wrist and spun me round so that I was facing him. I gulped and looked everywhere but his eyes, my eyes darting around the hallway, trying to focus on anything. Finally I realised that my attempts to distract myself were hopeless and I let out a frustrated sigh.

"What do you want Troy?" I asked softly as my gaze was drawn to his ocean coloured eyes, but I quickly looked away, as looking in his eyes could be dangerous, I realised.

He looked shocked at the sudden change in my attitude and who could blame him? I'd been awful towards all of them lately. He shuffled his feet and his hand found the back of his neck, a sure sign he was nervous. A feeling of dread and panic slowly started to build up in me oh G-d what had happened now?

"Troy?" I asked suddenly scared.

This time it was his turn to feel awkward and look away.

"Look Ella can you just meet me in our place right after school?" He asked.

I eyed him up and down, trying to make sense of him, before asking tentatively, "what about basketball practice?"

"Cancelled," he whispered looking at me; again I looked away, if only I could tell him what was going on. "Will you come?" he asked again.

I thought about it for a minute, closing my eyes, trying to process what I was going to tell him if he asked what had been up lately, before nodding ever so slightly. The nod was so small that I wasn't even sure if I had actually nodded, but he seemed to take it as a yes as he muttered a thanks, before running off down the corridor, undoubtedly late for something or other.

**Troy's P.O.V**

I had to get out of there. I had planned to talk to Ella right there and then, until I realised that this could be quite a sensitive subject and I didn't particularly want the whole East High student body to know about mine and Ella's conversation, courtesy of Mandy, the head cheerleader, who was skulking around the corner, just waiting for some dirt on Ella. She'd always hated her, even more so since we started to date, Mandy always thought that I should have been going out with her, but to be honest she's a stuck up snob who wants everything her own way. As well as that I realised that I was now where near ready to talk to her yet, I needed to prepare myself for tears from the girl that I love because I have a horrible feeling that this talk is not going to go well.

Ella hasn't been the same lately and I want to know what's wrong with her. In the past 3 and half weeks, she's pushed everyone away, me, Taylor, Kelsi, Jason, Zeke, Ryan and even Sharpay, who she has become really close to after last summer's fiasco at the country club, she tells everything to Shar, but even she doesn't know what's wrong with Ella this time and I am determined to find out. Chad's even been pushed out and that's something that Ella would never do if everything was alright, Chad has become her big brother, he even threatened me, his best friend from pre-school that if I hurt her he'd kill me, he's her protector, but he hasn't been able to protect her in this battle.

My Ella, the bright, bouncy, kind-hearted girl was gone, instead she had been replaced by a girl that none of us knew, someone who shied away from the world and rushed out of school the second that the bell went, she quit all of her extra curricular activities, including scholastic decathlon, with no explanation at all. None of the gang, me included, can remember the last time that they saw her outside of school.

Today I'm going to get it out of her, I'm going to find out what's happened to make the girl of my dreams, the girl I love with all of my heart to disappear and be replaced with someone new.

With that last thought, I let out one last aggravated sigh and headed out into the gym to get rid of my pent up frustration by throwing some free throws… and missing every single one. Only one person can make me so confused and upset that I would miss so badly, and I could feel the eyes of Chad, Zeke and Jason watching me from the gym doors as I yelled and threw the basketball at the wall and walked back into the changing rooms, just one more lesson to go…

**Gabriella's P.O.V**

My grades had been slipping lately, and that was an understatement, I usually aced every test, but lately the highest grades that I'd been getting had been C's, and that was if I was lucky. I knew that I had more important things to worry about, but it still didn't stop me feeling hurt every time I saw that I had flunked another test, or when I saw the disappointment in my teachers or my friends eyes, and heard tutting from certain teachers as they gave me back exams. I also never failed to see the concern in my friends eyes, but I could ignore that, just by not looking at them, and avoiding them, lately I'd become a loner, I didn't even remember what it felt like to have friends anymore, and it was all my fault.

I sat there during physics, my last class of the day, and possibly THE most boring subject on the planet. I wasn't concentrating again, I knew that and I could tell that Taylor and Zeke could tell as well from the glances they were sending in my direction.

I had a much more important task today. I had to figure out what to tell Troy if he asked what was wrong with me lately, and come up with some more excuses as to why I couldn't go out with my friends at the weekend, I may not have talked to them in ages, but they still asked, no begged me to go out with them, and I point blankly refused every time, coming up with excuses that even I didn't believe half the time, I was just so scared that they'd find out and be ashamed and embarrassed by me.

I glanced at the clock, finally.

5…4…3…2…1…BBBBRRRRRIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!

The bell finally rang and I scooped up my books and ran out of that room as fast as possible, before the Mr. Larson had even dismissed the class, but I needed to get this talk with Troy over with.

I threw my books into my locker and slammed it shut, fully aware that everyone in the hall was watching me, my friends included as I ran down the hallway, towards our spot.

I slowed down once I reached the stairs and walked up them, the dread building with every step that I took. I reached out and grasped the handle to open the door…

**So what did you think? Should I continue this story? Please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Thanks for the reviews guys!!! Anyway here's the second chapter of Need You More Than Ever, hope you like it! Please Review!!**

Chapter 2 

**Troy's P.O.V.**

My breath caught in my throat and my heart stopped as I heard the door slowly creep open. Why couldn't she just hurry up? I need to know what's wrong with her. She's changing daily now and it's scaring me more than ever.

I looked up and smiled slightly when I saw her step through the door. Her eyes were darting from side to side; trying to find me, until they finally caught my eye and she gave a brief smile that I could tell was fake. She bit down on her bottom lip, a sure sign that she was nervous, and avoided my gaze as she hurried over to the bench and sat down beside me.

I sighed and took hold of her hand, watching curiously as she near jumped out of her skin. I felt guilty right then for scaring her like that, so I gave her a warm smile and looked back out to the rooftop garden that was surrounding us, praying that she would pick up on what I wanted to talk to her about and just tell me, rather than us having to have an uncomfortable discussion about it.

I snuck a sidelong glance at her out of the corner of my eye, hoping that she wouldn't see. On the outside, she was still my Ella, still as beautiful as ever, with her dark brown orbs, that were currently staring off into space, her caramel coloured skin, that seemed as soft as ever and her ebony curls, that always just seemed to spring back into place. However on the inside, my Ella was lost. Gone. Just like that. No explanation at all.

Gabriella's P.O.V. 

He keeps looking at me. He obviously thinks that I don't see it. But I do. He wants me to tell him, and I want to, I just don't know how to, I want to tell all of them, but I cant. It's my problem, not theirs.

I glance at him, to find him looking at me. Again. He quickly blushes and turns away. I look to the ground, I'm not speaking first, he wanted to talk to me he can speak first. The only problem is that we're both so dam stubborn.

"Gabriella…" he finally says after what feels like an eternity.

Uh-oh. Wait. Did he just call me Gabriella? He never calls me that anymore; I'm always his Ella, his Ella-Bella, who he couldn't live without (his words not mine). Something must be wrong for him to call me Gabriella, really wrong.

I need to focus on what he's saying and try to take it in, even if this conversation results in the worst possible outcome.

**No One's P.O.V.**

Gabriella's body slowly turned around so that she was facing Troy, her brown eyes scanning him, trying to work out what he was going to say, before resting on his ocean deep eyes, and falling into them.

"Gabriella," Troy started again, clearly not knowing what to say.

Troy stood up in frustration and started to pace, running his hands through his hair, and mumbling to himself. Gabriella's eyes never left him, following him back and forth as he paced, and trying to understand what he was muttering about, although to no benefit.

Eventually Gabriella gave up trying to hear Troy and decided that if anything was going to happen, she was going to have to start the conversation.

"Troy," she murmured softly, unsure if he had heard or not, but he immediately whipped around and knelt in front of her, looking into her eyes, his expression softening as he begged her to tell him what was wrong. Almost as soon as the connection was made, Gabriella tore her eyes away from him, terrified of giving too much away.

Troy let out a frustrated groan before taking hold of her cheek gently with one hand and guiding her face so that she was facing him again. His heart shattered into a million separate pieces as he saw just how scared and vulnerable she looked.

Gabriella closed her eyes and leaned into his hand as he soothingly caressed the side of her cheek. She opened her eyes again and stared into his baby blue ones, as a single tear made its way down her cheek.

**Gabriella's P.O.V.**

No. I promised myself that I wouldn't do this. I swore that I would not cry in front of anyone, especially him.

"Ella, please tell me what's wrong. I hate seeing you this way. It hurts seeing you so upset," Troy said trying to figure me out from my eyes.

Immediately I tore my face out of his grasp and a cold look flew to my face. "It's none of your business Troy. I'm doing fine and even if I was upset, which I'm not, it wouldn't even concern you, so stop trying to get involved in things where you don't belong," I said harshly and sharply, knowing that every single word that left my mouth was a lie and that he was only concerned to see me so upset.

**No one's P.O.V.**

Troy looked shocked as he stood up rapidly and a hard look settled on his face, his eyes darkening by several shades.

"You know what Gabriella, I was only trying to look out for you! I just wanted you to let me in so that I could try and help you solve some of your problems. How do you expect me to even try and help you if you don't even tell me what's wrong!" Troy yelled, his fury being unleashed in one long rant.

Gabriella suddenly stood up to hurt and furious by what Troy was saying. "Did I ever ask for your help Bolton? Did I ever say I needed you? Because if I did, I sure as hell don't remember doing it!" Gabriella screamed back at him, furious by what he had just said, but on the inside, both of their hearts were breaking.

Troy's breathing started to return to normal, but he was still fuming. "Dam it Gabriella. I love you more than life itself. But I can't go on like this. I love you too much to watch you put yourself through this pain, when any one of us would help you in a heartbeat. If you cant' tell me, no make that if you won't tell me what's wrong then I can't do this anymore Ella, I'm so sorry but I can't watch the girl that I love trying to self destruct," Troy finished off softly.

He glanced at Gabriella, who had tears building up in her eyes as she heard this, knowing that the inevitable was coming, but she refused to show them. The anger had been a charade, a way of trying to force him off the path of trying to find out what was going on in her life, but instead it had brought her a much worse fate.

"Troy… what are you talking about? What do you mean?" Gabriella asked, the terror taking over her as she asked those two questions that could change everything.

Troy sighed softly before raising his eyes to meet Gabriella's. "We're through Ella, I can't watch you go through this anymore if you won't take any help. I love you with all my heart, please remember that." And with that Troy Bolton headed for the stairs that would unavoidably lead him away from the girl he loved, and out of her life.

Once he reached the stairs, he turned one last time and sent a lingering glance to Gabriella, who was standing there in shock. "Have a good life Ella, no," he said shaking his head, "have a great life."

And with that he was gone.

**Gabriella's P.O.V.**

As soon as the door shut I broke down. All of the tears that I had been trying so desperately hard to keep at bay caught up with me and I let them flow freely down my face as I gasped for breath and fell sobbing to my knees, still staring at the door where less than a minute ago he had been. The love of my life, the only thing that was going right in my life.

**Troy's P.O.V.**

I felt my heart shatter even more than it had already as I leant on the door listening to Ella sob. Why had I done this to the girl I love?

No I thought shaking my head, it was for the best, if she couldn't trust me with this, G-d knows what else she was keeping from me. Why couldn't she just tell me? What was so wrong with her?

As I heard Ella give another heart wrenching sob, I suddenly couldn't take it any more and I took off running down the stairs and out of the school, not stopping until I was safely in my car, driving away from the school, the tears flowing freely from my face.

**Gabriella's P.O.V.**

Why didn't I just tell him? How bad could his reaction be? I was still sitting up here in our spot nearly two hours later, the tears still running from my face, but I had no intentions of stopping them and I couldn't find the strength I needed to walk home. I had just let the guy I love leave, all because I was too ashamed and guilty. Oh G-d what have I done?

I need you Troy, now more than ever… 


	3. Chapter 3

Need You More Than Ever

**Hey guys thanks for the reviews, sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been overloaded with schoolwork, but the holidays are coming up soon so I should be able to update most days, anyway I'm on such a High School Musical high right now because I've just come back from the ice concert and it was great! I'd recommend anyone to go and see it, anyhow, here's chapter 3, although it's only short.**

Gabriella slowly wandered down the streets of Albuquerque, towards her house, knowing that the later she got there, the more chance there was of her mother being out.

Gabriella took a deep breath as she walked up her garden path and none of the lights inside the house were on. She looked heaven ward and prayed that her mother had already left for the night.

She gently stuck her key in the lock and turned. "Mom," she called out in a small squeaky voice. She breathed a sigh of relief when nobody answered, and opened the door wider. She wrinkled her nose as the smell hit, trying desperately hard not to gag.

Her gaze flew around the living room, taking on the dozens of empty beer cans and vodka bottles, that lay littering the floor, the kitchen and dining rooms weren't much better, she thought as she wandered around the lower levels of her house.

Her mom had really out done herself this time, Gabriella thought, she wondered just how many people her mom had actually has round drinking today, and what time they had deemed suitable to go to the bar, and start drinking there instead.

Gabriella sighed as she dumped her books on the stairs and started to clean up the mess, knowing otherwise that her punishment would only be worse. She cleaned for what felt like hours, removing beer cans from everywhere and anywhere, wiping up spills and marks that had been caused by cans and bottles littering surfaces without coasters. She vacuumed and scrubbed until she could see herself in the surfaces. She just hoped that this was good enough for her mother.

Shattered, Gabriella finally managed to heave her weakened body upstairs to shower and get to bed, not even bothering to eat, knowing that whatever she ate she would more than likely through straight back up anyway.

She slowly pulled herself into her room and into her connecting bathroom, urging her body to keep going, even though the pain intensified with each step she took.

Turning the shower on full power, Gabriella sighed and stepped into the scolding water, feeling it rush over her body, mixing with her own tears as she relived the incidents of that day and how awful her life was currently. The water mixed with the heavy make up that she had been wearing as it ran down her body.

Shivering, Gabriella turned off the water and wrapped a big towel around herself. She wiped all of the condensation off of the mirror and looked into it, something that she hadn't done for weeks.

When she saw herself, Gabriella let out a horrified cry, realising just how much the make up had been covering up what she was going through. She had bruises running the whole length of her body, some fresh purple ones, others a fading yellowy colour, including a wide variety of coloured bruises on her face and upper arms. She had long gashes running down her back and thighs, from where her mother had used the belt. She even had a gash just above her left eyebrow, where her mother had slapped her, with her ring turned inwards.

Sobs wracked Gabriella's body as she slowly sunk to the floor, hatred and anger taking over her entire being. She hated herself for existing in this life, and she started to pound her fists on the floor as a way of letting her frustration and hatred at herself out.

Gabriella didn't blame her mother though, as her mother said, Gabriella was a whore who deserved everything she got. No Gabriella Montez didn't blame her mother, she blamed herself…


	4. Chapter 4

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hey guys, since I haven't updated in a while, I figured that I might as well upload chapter 3 and chapter 4 together, so here's chapter 4 enjoy!**

As Gabriella finished inspecting her yellowing bruises in the mirror, she slowly dragged herself off of her bathroom floor and back into her bedroom. She found herself in her wardrobe, looking for something cosy that she could wear for bed, knowing that they wouldn't upset her bruises.

Without realising it, Gabriella pulled out one of Troy's basketball jerseys, a pair of his old tracksuit bottoms, and one of his training sweatshirts. As she pulled them on, she let out a strangled cry and the tears started to flow more freely down her face, as she realised that she would never be able to steal anymore of his clothes, or breath in his scent again, the way she could from the clothes that she had left of him.

On instinct, she locked her bedroom door, as she passed by it, learning from experience that this saved her from any night time attacks as her mother would get bored with trying to open the door after a half hour or so, and leave to find whatever drunken guy she had brought home that night.

To cover all of her bases, Gabriella then moved to her balcony doors and made sure that they were locked, so that if Troy came he wouldn't be able to get in, even though she doubted he'd come.

As she reached up to close her curtains, her eyes connected with a pair of sorrowful looking blue ones. Gabriella blinked, as she looked into Kelsi's eyes, terrified of giving away too much, before snapping her curtains closed, and cursing herself for not remembering that Kelsi was her neighbour and would undoubtedly be reporting everything she saw back to the gang.

Gabriella sighed as she remembered how excited she and Kelsi had first been when they learned that the backs of their houses faced each other, and they could communicate with one another as their rooms and balconies were directly opposite.

Gabriella took a deep breath as she gently rose from her floor and walked towards her wardrobe, where she kept her three most faithful friends from over the years.

Pulling out her guitar, notebook and pen, she smiled softly to herself and went back to sit on her bed.

Gabriella gently strummed the guitar as she wrote the lyrics into her lyric book, taking great care not to mess up and make sure that the entire song was perfect.

Once she was satisfied, Gabriella slowly started to strum the notes that she had just written into her guitar, and softly, but passionately began to sing the lyrics, gaining more confidence and volume, with her voice, as the song progressed.

_I don't need a lot of things  
I can get by with nothing  
Of all the blessings life can bring  
I've always needed something  
But I've got all I want  
When it comes to loving you  
You're my only reason  
You're my only truth  
_

_  
I need you like water  
Like breath, like rain  
I need you like mercy  
From heaven's gate  
There's a freedom in your arms  
That carries me through  
I need you_

Gabriella's voice cracked as she realised that every word she was singing was true and she needed Troy with her there and then. But she continued strongly, launching into the next verse, tears streaming down her face.

_  
You're the hope that moves me  
To courage again  
You're the love that rescues me  
When the cold winds, rage  
And it's so amazing  
'Cause that's just how you are  
And I can't turn back now  
'Cause you've brought me too far  
_

_  
I need you like water  
Like breath, like rain  
I need you like mercy  
From heaven's gate  
There's a freedom in your arms  
That carries me through  
I need you  
Oh yes I do  
_

_  
I need you like water  
Like breath, like rain  
I need you like mercy  
From heaven's gate  
There's a freedom in your arms  
And it carries me through  
I need you  
Oh yes I do  
I need you  
ahh I need you_

I need you… Gabriella thought as she finished the song and the day's events came crashing down on her.

And with that, Gabriella dropped her guitar and curled up into a small ball in the middle of her huge bed, crying for everything that she had lost…

**The song is called I need you by Leann Rimes and I would recommend it to anyone, it's a great song. Please review and tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys once again thanks for the reviews. Sorry again for the long wait, but I tried to make this chapter a little longer than usual, to make up for that. So here's chapter 5 and I should be able to start updating nearly everyday, as my holidays have just started.**

**Chapter 5**

The next morning, Gabriella woke with a start, hearing the screaming that was running through her house. She sighed heavy heartedly and looked at her clock seven am a good two hours extra sleep to what she'd normally have.

Suddenly, the pounding started and Gabriella looked at her door, terrified. The door was shaking as her mother pounded heavily on the other side to get her to wake up.

Gabriella whimpered as she heard her mother yell, "GET YOUR BACKSIDE OUT OF BED AND MAKE ME MY BREAKFAST NOW YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE SLUT!"

Immediately Gabriella flew out of bed and to the door, knowing that the longer she waited, the worse her punishment would be. She flung open the door to stare straight into the face of her mother, who looked very angry.

Gabriella tried to walk around her, knowing that it would be useless to try and talk to her when she was this angry.

Her attempts failed as she felt a searing pain flow through her, starting at her wrist, and gradually moving upwards as her mother through her into the wall and grabbed a hold of her throat.

She struggled as she started to lose oxygen fast, but heard her mother hiss, "next time come the first time I shout for you or I may not be able to control my actions. Don't bother making breakfast for yourself, you're not going to have time to eat it, but I need you to make it for me and one other."

Gabriella could smell the alcohol on her mother's breath and nodded quickly, rushing down the stairs as soon as her mother released her hold on her.

As soon as she was safe in the kitchen, Gabriella closed the door and the tears started to flow freely down her cheeks. She quickly moved over top the fridge and started to pull out all of the things that she would need to make her mother's and her mother's friends breakfast, although Gabriella knew full well that by friend, her mother meant her latest boyfriend, and Gabriella couldn't help but wonder just how long this one would last.

She knew that it was in her best interest to get this finished as quickly as possible, so started to curse in frustration when the stove would not light.

She whipped around and looked at the table, paling when she saw the gas bill sitting in the middle of it.

Gabriella slowly sunk to her knees. She knew that she had forgotten to do something, she just knew it. Of all the things that she could have forgotten to do, how could it have been to pay the gas bill?

Gabriella let out a startled squeak as the door to the kitchen abruptly flew open and her mother walked in with a terrifying looking man. He was all muscle, but not in a good way, he had a baldhead and tattoos covered most of his skin, his beard was unshaven and added to his terror. He also towered over Gabriella, which she knew straight away was not going to work in her favour. As they walked in they both glared at Gabriella, expecting something.

"Well, where is our breakfast," her mother demanded, glaring at Gabriella as she slowly turned in on herself, trying to get away from the anger in her mother's voice.

"Um…well…you see…err," Gabriella stuttered, shrinking with every word.

"What is it girl? Come on spit it out," the man whose name she did not know suddenly roared.

"I forgot to pay the gas bill, and we've been cut of, so I can't cook you breakfast," the words tumbled out of her mouth fast, as she closed her eyes against the blows she was sure would come.

"WHAT?!" her mother screamed as Gabriella looked up slightly, cringing when she saw the anger etched clearly into both adults faces.

"You little bitch," the man said as he advanced towards her and grabbed hold of her hair, pulling her head back hard. "You really think that you can just tell us something like that and get away with it? You disobeyed your mother and for that, you need to be severely punished." He finished with a smirk.

Gabriella looked over at her mother with pleading eyes, but her mother only had an identical smirk on her face as she moved closer to them and struck her daughter across the face, hard.

Gabriella cried out as she tasted the blood in her mouth and tried to move away, but the man still had a tight grip on her hair and she screamed out in pain as her mother and he laughed.

Next, Gabriella felt a solid blow to her stomach and sunk to the ground, holding it tight as she was kicked onto her side by a foot. The foot kept coming, again and again as she shrieked in pain.

The guy laughed as he grabbed Gabriella's arm and yanked her up from the floor, ripping her shoulder out of its socket. Gabriella felt the tears streaming down her face as the hot searing pain from her shoulder filled her whole body.

The guy grinned at her before throwing her back on the floor and stomping on her, as her mother did the same. Then she bent down next to Gabriella and put out her cigarette on Gabriella's leg as she was still wearing her sleeping shorts.

Leaving her daughter lying on the floor, Maria Montez stood back up and wrapped an arm around her latest lovers waist, and both of them grinned down at their latest accomplishment.

Sneering Maria said, "Since you were too lazy to pay the gas bills slut, we're going out for breakfast and when we come back, I don't want you anywhere in my sights for the rest of the day."

Bending down next to her daughter again, Maria grabbed Gabriella's hair forcing Gabriella to look at her, "Are we clear?" she scoffed, as Gabriella nodded wordlessly, the tears still cascading down her face.

"Good," and with that Maria Montez stood up and she and her latest conquest were gone, slamming the door loudly behind them.

As soon as she heard the front door slam, Gabriella broke into heart wrenching sobs, partially from the pain that she was in and partially because she wanted to know how the hell her mother could do something like that to her daughter.

Sitting up slowly, Gabriella sobbed in pain, as her stomach suddenly flared up.

She gently took hold of her limp arm and pushed her shoulder back into the awaiting socket, screaming out in pain as she had done the many times before when something had been dislocated due to her mother or one of her "friends".

Gabriella then tried to stand up, but finding the pain to unbearable, she fell back to the floor, crying in pain and wishing that someone could be there to help her.

About fifteen minutes later, Gabriella had finally managed to crawl to the bottom of the stairs and whimpered as she saw the long haul she was going to have to put her body through, just to get to her room.

She slowly inched her way up the steps, crying out at any little movement that she made.

Eventually Gabriella made it back to her room and managed to lock her door. She pulled herself onto her bed, using her remaining strength. She slowly turned onto her side and picked a framed photo off of her nightstand, her tears refreshing with the memories that it brought.

Things had never been like this when he was alive. When he was alive, her mother loved her. When he was alive, she was his little princess. When he was alive, she was happy. When he was alive, she was just a kid.

"I miss you daddy," Gabriella whispered out, before the pain set in and the darkness consumed her...

**Okay so now you've read it please tell me what you think, Gabriella's secret life has finally been revealed, to you lot at least, but will she reveal it to her friends and Troy?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys thanks for all the reviews, here's chapter 6, you know the drill, read it and tell me what you think. Thanks again.**

**Chapter 6**

The gang were all sat around in Kelsi's bedroom, taking it in turns to sit out on her balcony, and watch the Montez household opposite, looking for any sign of life.

Kelsi herself was pacing the full length of her room, backwards and forwards again and again, and those who were currently in the room were watching her intently.

"You know guys I'm really scared that something really bad is going on," Kelsi whispered, looking at them all sorrowfully, including Troy, who could currently not look anyone in the eye as he believed the same thing and also believed that he had made things worse for the one true love of his life.

"Come on Kelsi, we've been here since nine am this morning and nothing suspicious has happened at all, maybe you're just over-reacting and Miss goody two shoes all of a sudden just thinks she better than us for some reason," Sharpay scoffed, as Troy balled his fists in fury and Kelsi whipped around, anger radiating from the petite brunette.

"You want to know the real reason I called you all here today Sharpay?" Kelsi yelled, getting louder with each word, "it's because at half seven this morning I was woken by screams coming from that house, followed later by the most heart wrenching sobs that I have ever heard, and you know what the worst part about it is? I knew it was Gabriella. I knew that for some reason she was in desperate pain and I just lay in my bed listening, I didn't do a damned thing to help her!" Kelsi broke off as her body started to shake with sobs and Jason immediately rushed in from his spot on the balcony to comfort his girlfriend, whispering sweet words in her ear, all the while glaring over her head at Sharpay, who looked shocked by Kelsi's sudden outburst.

"I'm sorry Kelsi, I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I'm just so mad that she hasn't come to talk to any of us about it, when she's in such obvious pain, we'd all help her in a heartbeat and she knows that, so why's she not coming to any of us?" Sharpay asked, getting teary herself as Zeke moved to hug her.

"That's exactly what I said to her yesterday," Troy spoke up, the first words since he'd arrived that morning and everybody turned to look at him. Tears started to flow down his cheeks as he continued, "I broke up with her yesterday. And that's one of the last things that I said to her, that any one of us would help her in a heartbeat. When I did it, I thought that it was the right thing, but now I've heard what you've just said Kelsi, I'm not so sure anymore, and I hate myself so much for causing her more pain than she's already in."

Troy looked disgusted with himself as he finished and punched the wall hard, repeatedly, as he slowly sank down to his knees and put his face in his hands, letting his sobs wrack his body.

The gang watched on in shock, all of them had known Troy, or at least who he was, since pre-k and not a single one of them, even Chad, had ever seen Troy Bolton break down the way that he was breaking down now, it was like he was losing everything that made him Troy Bolton.

Taylor was the first one to react, running over to Troy and joining him in his sobs for her best friend, who she knew was slowly slipping away, even with their best efforts to stop it.

Soon the rest of the gang joined in the hug and they all just sat there, in the middle of Kelsi's bedroom floor holding onto each other, and sobbing for all that they were losing.

After a while, Ryan pulled away, figuring that someone should take back over looking out to see if Gabriella was moving.

"Guys," he shouted urgently, "she's out there, but she's limping pretty bad, I can't see what's wrong with her." The rest of the gang, Troy included ran onto the balcony when they heard the panic in Ryan's voice.

Sure enough, there Gabriella was, hanging laundry out to dry in her garden, and wincing with every slight movement that she made. Suddenly she dropped the basket she was carrying and yelled out in pain as she crashed to the ground.

"Gabriella," Troy breathed out, before turning around and running out of Kelsi's room, hurtling down her stairs and out her back door, hopping the fence that was keeping him from Gabriella in a heart beat, the rest of the gang following moments later.

Troy was the first to reach her, and bent down beside her, encircling her in a hug as she cried in pain. The rest of the gang arrived and watched in horror at the state that their friend was in.

Gabriella abruptly pushed Troy off of her, ignoring the hurt in his eyes as she turned around to glare at her friends, trying to discount the shooting pains that were coursing through her, due to her injuries.

Troy slowly stood up and joined their friends in looking at Gabriella.

She glared back at them all, "What the hell are you all doing here?" she hissed, as her glare fell onto Troy and hardened even more. _I've got to push them away, it's the only way I can keep them all safe_, she thought to herself, never releasing her glare.

The gang looked back stunned at what had happened to their best friend.

"Well Brie, you fell over, so we ran over here to help you out, plus Kelsi said that she heard screams coming from here this morning, is everything all right?" Chad tried, tentatively asking her.

Gabriella snorted, "first of all don't call me Brie, that person is well gone, second who do you all think you are walking in here and acting like the heroes?"

Every word she said was killing her, she didn't mean any of it, she'd give anything for them to be her heroes at this point in time, and Troy could see that in her eyes, but he also knew just how stubborn his ex-girlfriend was and how she would do anything to keep them safe.

Troy's head was whipped up and he was drawn out of his thoughts as Gabriella suddenly turned on Kelsi.

"And you!" the gang, except Troy, had never seen Gabriella this angry before now, "what the hell do you think you're doing spying on me? Did I ask you to look out for me? I'm not a baby, I can very well take care of myself!" she screamed, if anything getting louder with each word.

Something was desperately wrong for Gabriella to shout at Kelsi like that, Troy knew instantly, something much worse then any of them could even possibly imagine, the only time that she had ever erupted like that before was when he nearly got himself killed for performing a dangerous stunt on his bike, using oncoming traffic to make it seem funnier, when all that really happened was that he ended up in the ER.

"You know what," her voice was quieter now, but still sounded annoyed, "can all of you just get out of here? Can you all just stay the hell out of my life and leave me alone?" She practically whispered the last part, but they all heard it anyway, as if she had just screamed it at them, it rang through all of their ears.

The gang stood their looking horrified at what she had just asked them to do, until someone finally had the guts to speak up.

"If that's what you really want us to do, we'll do it Gabriella, but we're only concerned about you, you've changed so much from the sweet girl we used to know," Taylor said quietly as she looked at her ex best friend, shaking her head.

Gabriella smirked, an expression that the gang had never seen cross her features before, it wasn't a playful happy smirk, more like a more dark and terrifying one which made the whole gang shiver in fear of what Gabriella was going to do. "If you think I've changed now Taylor, just wait until Monday at school."

Giving her shocked friends one last glare, Gabriella turned and flounced back inside her house, trying to keep her charade up, before any of them realised just how much was actually wrong with her, and they turned to walk back towards Kelsi's house, each looking back over their shoulder from time to time.

However, as soon as she reached her kitchen door and stepped inside, she fell to the floor in agony and loneliness, before straightening up and trying her hardest to complete today's tasks that her mother had left her, before she came back.

As she looked cautiously out of the window, her eyes caught on those of a certain blue-eyed boy, who just looked at her with sorrow filled eyes.

"It's for the best," she whispered and as though he had heard her, Troy shook his head, and turned to leave her life once again, for the second time that week.

**Okay guys please review and tell me what you think loved it or hated it.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hi guys, thanks for all of the reviews and sorry that it's taken me so long to update this story, but anyway, here's chapter 7, so enjoy and please tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 7**

The following Monday at school, the gang were all stood around Taylor's locker, deciding what to do about the Gabriella problem, when the janitor's cupboard swung open and a very satisfied looking captain of the football team stepped out, giving the gang a wink, before he started to walk down the corridor, grinning.

"Urrgh," Taylor moaned, "I wonder which slutty little cheerleader is pleasuring them today." The gang snorted with laughter as they agreed and turned towards the cupboard door, to see which cheerleader would be emerging in the next few minutes.

However, when the door did swing open again, the gang saw a sight that shocked them all to their inner core.

Gabriella was the one to step out of the cupboard, not any one of the cheerleaders. Only, it wasn't their Gabriella, the one that they all knew and love, no this was someone else, someone who had replaced their Gabby.

As Gabriella walked out, smirking, the gang all stared at her; she was wearing a very low cut purple strapless top that ended just above her belly button, showing of her silver belly button ring with diamond studs. On her lower half, she was wearing a black skirt so short that the gang weren't sure if it was supposed to be a skirt or a belt, then she wore purple heels on her feet, which made her legs look even longer than ever. Her make up was way over the top, with heavy purple eye shadow covering her eyes and black glitter eyeliner traced around them. The gang could also tell that she was wearing layers of foundation, as though she was trying to hide something from people, although those that knew her best could see through it anyway. Her hair was pulled up into a messy side ponytail, and trailing along her neck, the gang could see a series of hickies.

As she turned and saw the gang, Gabriella's smile faltered, before she smirked at them and wandered off down the corridor, swaying her hips from side to side as she did so, earning the attention from most of the male population in the corridor, who were wolf whistling or reaching out to grab her at certain points, to which she just laughed, far from the Gabriella that the gang had ever known.

True to what she had said to Taylor during their face off, Gabriella Montez had changed more than any of them could imagine and it terrified all of them to think of what could have possibly happened to their little sister to make her change so much in such a short space of time.

During the course of the day, each of the gang took it in turns to watch over Gabriella, depending who was in her class, and decided that they would meet later that night at Kelsi's house again, to discuss what they had seen and what they were going to do.

Over the day, the gang were shocked to see Gabriella sneaking out of places with at least six other guys, skipping her lessons or coming in late for them, not doing her homework, laughing at teachers and crumpling up detention slips when they handed them to her. But the thing that scared them all the most was the way that Gabriella started shouting and arguing with some of her teachers, even though she had been changing, she had never been this bad.

Gabriella on the other hand was feeling awful. She hated the fact that she had yelled at the gang, but knew that she had to keep them safe, so whenever she felt their eyes on her, she would simply up her antics, either grabbing the nearest guy and pushing him up against the locker, making out with him or taking the piss out of a teacher, straight to their faces. Over the course of the day, Gabriella must have visited the principles office at least two dozen times, for acts that normally, she would have been horrified by, but at this point, she couldn't really have cared about.

The night before, she had gotten no sleep as her mother returned late, still with the big muscle filled guy, which surprised Gabriella, normally they didn't last longer than a day, and had come bursting into Gabriella's room, announcing that she and 'Rick' were going away for the rest of the week, Gabriella had cursed herself for forgetting to lock her door that night, but she had literally fallen into bed after completing her chores.

Her mother had announced that they were going upstate for the week and that Gabriella was not to touch any of the food in the house, she knew exactly what there was, and that if she dared touch any of the food, her life would not be worth living any more. Gabriella had to fight the urge there to ask her mom if she really thought that her life was worth living by this stage.

But Gabriella's going away present? The worst beating that she had had yet., this time as well as using their feet and their fists, her mother and Rick had also used his studded belt to hit her a few times, leaving dangerous marks all over her back and then pouring vodka into the wounds, causing Gabriella to writhe in pain as she screamed loudly.

Then the worst imaginable happened. Rick had raped her, while her mother just stood by and laughed, giving him pointers as Gabriella sobbed uncontrollably, trying to get away.

The couple had then laughed and walked out of the door, leaving Gabriella sobbing and feeling violated, lying in her bed, curled up in a ball.

Once it reached half five, Gabriella had a plan, she didn't need anyone and she wasn't going to get close to anyone, ever again. Ever.

She quickly got changed into her new look, using clothes that she had long since forgotten about and that some people who really didn't know her had bought her.

She had then spent the best part of an hour and a half using make up to cover up all of her visible cuts and bruises, deciding that this was going to be the day when Gabriella Montez proved that she could cope on her own, and to do that, she was going to go through with actions that she knew would terrify her friends, hopefully to the point that they would no longer want to speak with her.

Gabriella winced as she remembered the goings on of the previous night and earlier in the day, tears springing to her eyes as she grabbed her books from her locker, and frowned, feeling a pair of eyes on her.

She turned to see his bright cobalt eyes watching her every move from the corner, hurt flashing through them as she sighed and grabbed the nearest guy, making sure that he wasn't on the basketball team as she knew that none of them would do anything, to them she was their little sister that they would protect from everything. Except this, she thought, but that was only because she wouldn't allow them to protect her from this, she couldn't let them.

At the end of the day, the gang frowned as they watched Gabriella sprint away from the school as fast as possible in the direction of her house, before they all started to walk at a much slower pace.

Running into her house, Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that her mother and Rick wouldn't be there.

She dumped her school bag in her room and ignored the growling of her stomach, she couldn't even remember the last time that she had eaten, and headed into her bathroom after locking her door and drawing the curtains across her balcony doors, her eyes catching on the gang all sat around in Kelsi's room, her heart yearning to be with them.

Once she was in the bathroom, Gabriella quickly changed into a pair of Troy's old basketball shorts and a tank top, wiping all of the make up off and wincing as she saw just how bad all of the fresh cuts and bruises were, and just how bad the bags under her eyes looked.

When she had finished with that, Gabriella started to search through her draws, looking for one specific item.

As soon as she found her razor, she rose up triumphantly and took one last look at herself in the mirror. Watching as she placed the cool blade of the razor and drew it across her burning flesh. Watching as the blood started to spurt from her wrist and she moved to continue on the second wrist. Watching as her troubles all floated away, running out of her, along with her blood.

On the verge of passing out, Gabriella plunged her wrists into the cold water in the sink, watching curiously as it turned bright red instantly.

Once she felt the flow of blood start to slow down, Gabriella lifted her arms out of the sink and grinned. Skye, her new friend was right, slitting your wrists, something that she had always thought dangerous and stupid before, could be a release and felt really good.

Shrugging, Gabriella looked around the bathroom and winced at the amount of clean up that she was going to have to do. There was blood everywhere you looked.

**Ok so this was a very dark chapter, so please review it and tell me what you thought of it.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Thanks for all of the reviews guys! Well I actually already have the final chapter and one of the most important parts of the story written, now I just need to try and write the chapters that lead up to them. So anyway here is chapter 8, please read it and then review and tell me what you thought.**

**Chapter 8**

Over the following week and a half, the gang's worry for Gabriella grew as her attitude to people, especially teachers and boys, became even worse and her dress sense took a major plunge, each outfit trying to be worse than the one the day before for showing her flesh.

Troy was the only one who had noticed that ever since the Monday that they had first noticed the horrendous change in Gabriella, she had been wearing bangles, which always covered her wrists.

This worried Troy enormously as when they were dating, Gabriella always complained about the likes of bangles, saying that the sound of them clattering together irritated her more than anything and that she hated the feel of them against her skin. Troy dreaded to think about what she was doing that caused her to have a sudden change of heart about the bangles.

The gang had also been keeping close tabs on her over the past week, desperately trying to figure out what was going on with their friend and meeting in Kelsi's room almost every night, to see if they could see what was going on at her house, but to no help, she now had her bedroom curtains closed constantly, so it had become impossible to see what she was up to.

Also, extremely worryingly, the gang had also realised that Gabriella's weight was dropping at an extremely dangerous rate, however much she tried to hide it. A couple of her ribs could be seen constantly sticking through the tight tops that she was wearing and she was now wearing belts tied so tightly that they almost wrapped all the way around her twice.

Finally deciding that enough was enough, Sharpay dragged the gang over to the Montez's house after school on that Friday.

As they rung on the doorbell, they waited a good ten minutes for an answer, knowing that Gabriella at least was home as they had seen her rush through the door just moments before they had reached it.

"Fine then, we should just go guys," Ryan sighed in frustration as he turned to go, Jason and Troy following him, heads dipped low.

"No!" Kelsi spoke sharply, before turning to the door, the others watching her in confusion as she took a deep breath and reached up for the door handle, dragging it down and opening the door quickly as she stepped inside and motioned for the others to follow her.

The gang all watched her carefully, before Sharpay followed her inside and the rest followed quickly.

As soon as they stepped into the house, the gang were shocked by the amount of alcohol bottles that littered every surface possible and the stench of alcohol made them all gag almost immediately, but the sound of soft sobbing made them realise why they were all there in the first place and started to head up the stairs towards Gabriella's room, Sharpay in the lead, Troy directly behind her.

Walking into Gabriella's room, only after Taylor had used her hair pin to pick the lock, they could hear the sobbing intensify and Zeke nodded his head towards Gabriella's bathroom, to which Sharpay again took over the lead and yanked open the door, gasping at what she saw.

"GABRIELLA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She screamed, louder than anyone had ever heard her scream as the rest of the gang stood around the doorway in horror.

Gabriella looked up at them, her eyes bright red and puffy, bruises lining her face and all other parts of her skin that was visible. She was sat in the middle of her bathroom floor, wearing a pair of her bed shorts and one of Troy's old hoodies, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, blood gushing from her freshly slit wrists.

"It wont stop, Pay, it just won't stop," she whispered, looking back at her wrists.

Chad took the first action and pushed his way forward, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around Gabriella's wrists tightly, trying to stop the flow of blood as she sobbed into his chest.

Suddenly, she took note of the towel wrapped around her wrists and started to struggle.

"NO CHAD! NOT THE TOWEL, BLOOD DOESN'T COME OUT, SHE'S GONNA BE SERIOUSLY PISSED IF I RUIN ANYTHING ELSE, I CAN'T AFFORD TO RUIN ANYTHING ELSE," Gabriella yelled, startling the gang as she desperately tried to struggle away from Chad and the towel, who held onto her firmly, a grave expression set into his face.

An hour or so later, the blood had stopped and the gang were all stood around Gabriella's room as she stood at the bathroom sink, desperately trying to get the blood out of the towel.

"Gabriella, please tell us what's going on, we can't help if we don't know," Troy begged, his eyes wide as he watched her trying desperately to save the towel.

"I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP," she suddenly screamed, startling the entire gang as she whirled around, glaring at them all, "IF YOU TRY AND HELP ME, YOU'RE GONNA GET HURT AND I CAN'T RISK IT AND THEN WATCH THE PEOPLE THAT I LOVE MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THIS UNIVERSE GET HURT!"

"Yeah but Gabby, by not letting us help, you're hurting the one person who we all care most about in this universe and who brought us altogether in the first place," Jason whispered, watching her intently as the rest of the gang nodded in agreement and Gabriella started to break, her face crumpling slightly, before turning back to stone.

"No, I can't," she whispered, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

Taylor and Sharpay each moved up to their friend and took one of her hands each, cringing as she flinched at their touch, her big brown eyes looking at them, as if she was terrified of them.

"We're here for you Gabs, we're always gonna be here for you, whether you like it or not," Taylor muttered soothingly, gently running her thumb over the back of Gabriella's hands and the rest of the gang nodded, smiling as they say the first hint of a real smile appear on Gabriella's face for weeks.

"Okay," she whispered so softly that they all almost missed it, but they heard and each member of the gang breathed their own sigh of relief.

Gabriella slowly moved across the room until she was in front of Troy. "I'm sorry Troy, I didn't mean to cause you any hurt," she said softly, and Troy felt his heart break even more as she looked into his eyes.

He reached out and took her hand gently, feeling guilty when she winced at his touch, before moving one of her bangs out of her face, "You have nothing to be sorry for baby girl," he whispered soothingly, "If anything I should be sorry for causing you so much pain, when you were already in so much pain." With that said, he wiped away the solitary tear rolling down her cheek and pulled her into a hug, which she melted into, sobbing quietly into his shoulder for s few minutes, before turning back to the gang and taking a deep breath, finally back in the safety of her one true loves arms.

She slowly turned around to face the gang and they gasped, causing Gabriella to wince slightly and Troy to frown when they finally saw the full extent of Gabriella's injuries.

"What happened Boo?" Sharpay said, using her nickname for Gabriella, as she tucked that one stubborn lock of Gabriella's hair behind her ear again and studied her face carefully.

Gabriella took a deep breath and looked up at Troy who nodded at her and smiled softly at her to start, tenderly kissing her on top of her head. "It all started about 6 weeks ago when my Mom and I received a phone call from the army," the gang looked at her, confused as to where this was going, "they were calling to tell us that my dad had been shot and had died in battle," here a few tears fell down her cheeks, "it tore my Mom and me apart. My mom took it really bad though and she started to drink really heavily," the gang nodded, remembering the empty alcohol bottles downstairs, "pretty soon she'd be out at bars all the time and I had no idea where she was. But she kept coming back with all these random guys'; I had no clue who any of them were. About a week after that started, she started to abuse me, little things at first, just a slight slap every now and again, but as she continued to drink, it got worse and worse," the tears were flowing freely down her face by this point, "she expected me to do all the housework, everything and if it wasn't up to standard, she or her latest boyfriend would beat me, the other watching and laughing," Troy felt the anger inside him growing more with every word Gabriella spoke, clutching on to her tighter, "then she met Rick. He's the worst of all of them and the one she's stayed with the longest. He's been making my life hell for the past two weeks now, the day you came to help me in the garden was the first day he beat me. But the Sunday night following was the worst of everything, he raped me, and my mom…my mom just watched and…and she…she laughed, she was giving him pointers, while I was begging her to help me," Gabriella broke down at that point, the girls all sobbing with her and the guys anger reaching boiling point as Troy's arms wrapped tighter around her currently very petite frame, until she whimpered, causing alarm to rise from him.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he said frantically, as he turned her around and she sobbed heavily into his chest, drenching him in seconds.

The whole gang jumped as suddenly Gabriella's bedroom door burst open and in walked and extremely angry looking Maria Montez…

**Ok guys, Gabriella finally came clean, so please review and tell me what you thought, the quicker you review, the quicker I will update, although most of the next chapter is already written, so thanks for reading and please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks for the reviews, glad that you liked, anyway here's chapter 9 and this will be the last time that I'll be able to update so quickly for a while as school starts back up for me again tomorrow, anyway, here's chapter 9, read it and review.**

**Chapter 9**

As soon as Mrs Montez had burst through the door, Gabriella whimpered, causing Troy to pull her closer to him and the gang to huddle around them, in an attempt to protect their youngest member, everyone's little sister, while shooting death glares at her mother.

Immediately her expression turned to that of concern as she tried to fake that she had no clue what was going on with Gabriella.

"Gabriella, honey what's wrong?" She questioned, concerned as she tried to touch her daughter's cheek.

Gabriella whimpered again and pulled further away from her mother.

"We know what you've been doing to Gabriella," Sharpay hissed, the venom in her words making everyone in the room shiver.

"If you think that we're going to let you anywhere near her, think again, you're going to jail for a hell of a long time when we call the police," Kelsi chimed in, her voice dripping with just as much venom.

Mrs Montez laughed softly and moved towards the door, slamming it shut and locking it again as the teens watched, their fear growing more by the minute as they stood huddled together in the corner.

Looking back at them and smirking, Mrs Montez pulled a gun from the waistband of her trousers and everyone gasped as Gabriella buried her head into Troy's chest, trying to block out what was going on.

"I was just waiting for the day when I could use this on you, you little slut," she smirked as she kept walking across the room, towards the teens who were frozen in terror. "And as for all of you," she laughed harshly, glancing around the group of teenagers, her gaze landing on Gabriella, who shivered under it, "she's my daughter, what goes on between me and her has nothing to do with all of you. I can do whatever I want to her, considering that I was the one who gave the stupid whore life in the first place." She stopped directly in front of Troy and Gabriella and bent down to whisper into her daughter's ear, "if you don't come to me in the next five seconds you little brat, I'm going to go on a nice little shooting spree and you will have to watch all your so called friends die because of you, more to add to your list of murders." Straightening back up, she glared at Gabriella, whose eyes widened as she took in what her mother just said and automatically pulled out of Troy's grasp, walking towards the one that she used to call mommy.

The gang all screamed at her to not be so stupid and come back to them, but her mother was too quick for them and when Gabriella turned around to look at her friends and explain, her mother grabbed hold of her around her neck, causing Gabriella to start squirming and wriggling as she gasped for air.

Immediately, the gang started to move forward, but stopped instantly when Maria placed the gun to Gabriella's temple, "One more step closer and I swear to G-d I'll blow her brains all over that wall, if I were any of you and I wanted my so called friend to live, I'd sit down against that wall and not move a muscle out of place." The gang all moved over and sat down instantaneously, desperately trying to spare their friend some pain as Gabriella whimpered softly as the tears started to flow freely down her face. "SHUT UP!" Maria screamed, holding her daughter at arms length, her hand still clenched around Gabriella's neck, as she eyed her up, looking disgusted and kicked her in the stomach, hard.

The gang watched horrified as Gabriella fell to the ground, crying out in pain, but none of them dared move, for pure fear of what her mother would do to her if they did. They then watched as Maria yelled at her again to shut up, this time telling her how worthless and stupid she was, as Gabriella's sobs grew, before hitting her over the head with the back of the gun and pulling her back up by her neck.

"Mrs Montez please put the gun down," Troy pleaded as he looked at the crazed woman that was holding the love of his life hostage, one arm gripped firmly around Gabriella's neck.

"Didn't tell them did you Gabriella? Didn't tell them how you killed him did you?" She spat, waving the gun around as the gang looked on in confusion and terror and Gabriella sobbed quietly, the tears running down her cheeks at a faster rate than ever.

"I didn't kill him!" Gabriella screamed, pain seeping through every word.

"Yes you did," her mother hissed, the gang's confusion growing even more as Troy tried to edge towards the girl he loved and her deranged mother. "Don't even think about it Troy, go back and sit down with the others, before I blow your pretty little brains out, which I'm sure Gabriella here would love," she smirked as Gabriella let out another sob, silently pleading with her eyes for Troy to go back and sit with the others, "actually Gabriella, that's not a bad idea, you got the love of my life killed, so I kill the love of yours, only seems fair don't you think?" Mrs Montez laughed harshly as Gabriella's breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened.

"No, no please don't, I didn't get him killed," Gabriella whispered, her sobs intensifying again, as the rest of the gang watched on, helpless to help her.

"YES YOU DID," Mrs Montez roared, "IF HE WASN'T THINKING ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE LAST WORDS HIS BITCH OF A DAUGHTER SAID TO HIM WERE THAT SHE HATED HIM, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION AND HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN HIT BY THAT BULLET, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

Gabriella just sobbed, "I didn't get him killed, I didn't," she kept repeating as the gang's mouths all dropped in shock.

"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!" Mrs Montez roared, pushing the gun back to her daughter's temple.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out as everyone screamed…

**Okay well there was chapter 9, tell me what you guys thought and I'll try to update as soon as possible, but I'm not sure when that will be because as I said, school starts for me again in the morning, oh joy. So please review and tell me what you thought. You never know, the more reviews I get, the quicker I might update.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of the reviews, sorry that updates are back to taking a while, but since I went back to school, I've been overloaded with work again, anyway, here's chapter 10, please read it and tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 10**

The gang's heads whipped around, desperately trying to figure out where the bullet had hit, but when they turned to Gabriella, they saw her start to pale completely, and turn a shade of green that no one should naturally be able to turn.

Their gazes all followed hers and they looked down to her foot, which was now pouring with blood. Everyone in the room stood in a shocked silence, all just staring at Gabriella's foot as more and more blood oozed out of the bullet wound.

Unexpectedly, Gabriella started to scream, unable to stand the pain that was coursing through her body anymore, it was a worse than any kind of pain than that she had ever felt in her life before.

Each of the gang and Maria jumped about a foot in the air when Gabriella let out the blood-curdling scream, the room had been silent enough to hear a pin drop after the gunshot.

Her scream however, seemed to shock everyone back to their senses and as she continued to scream, Maria pulled her hair harshly, pulling her in the direction of the bathroom.

The gang all looked at each other, before deciding it was best to follow them and all sprinting over to the bathroom door, which was partially closed, obscuring their view of Gabriella, but they could all see Maria clearly, and worse for them, she just happened to turn around at that point in time and see them.

The guys froze in the doorway, causing the girls to crash straight into them and fall promptly to the floor. Zeke and Jason turned around to help the three girls up, whereas Troy, Chad and Ryan kept a death glare on Maria, making sure that she wasn't going to hurt Gabriella again.

Glaring back, equally as harshly, at them, Maria hissed, "Go sit down again, or I swear to G-d next time I won't miss her pretty little head, or maybe I'll even think about hitting one of you first, now that you know for sure that I will."

Troy shook his head, "No, no way am I leaving her, who only knows what you'll do," he folded his arms across his chest and glared Maria down.

A smirk started to form on Maria's face as she looked at Troy, her hand disappearing out of the gang's line of sight.

Gabriella started to scream, "Troy just do it, please, just go sit back down, all of you, you have no idea what she's capable of!"

The smirk on Maria's face grew as Troy unfolded his arms and paled at the tone of Gabriella's voice, quickly ushering the gang back to the corner, but retreating backwards himself, keeping his eyes trained on the door.

Maria just laughed ruthlessly again and swung the bathroom door closed, completely blocking the view of anything that was happening in there from the gang.

"Damn it!" Troy muttered, hitting the wall hard, before crying out in pain and rubbing his knuckles with his other hand.

"Great going knuckle head, you just made yourself injured and that helped Gabby a lot now didn't it," Taylor whispered insensitively, rolling her eyes at Troy.

Troy glared back at her and pretty soon the whole gang was having a massive hushed argument, minus Chad, who was sat there watching his friends break down and wondering how they could all be arguing at a time like this, when Gabriella obviously needed their help, and that was an understatement.

Chad couldn't take it anymore, "What the hell do you think you guys are doing?" They all turned around to glare at him, none of them had heard Chad speak in the tone of voice that he was currently using before, it was so serious, yet so hurt, "you guys are all arguing over petty little things, when G-d only knows what is happening to Briella in that bathroom at the minute and really, we should be devising a plan to get out of here safely, all of us," he finished as his eyes turned towards the bathroom door.

The gang all looked down, ashamed, and then cringed when a painful scream emitting from the bathroom suddenly backing up Chad's point.

"I'm sorry," the whole group whispered together, and smiled softly, when they realised that they were still as connected as ever, their smiles quickly turned into frowns though when they heard another scream.

Chad nodded, "Right then, what do we do?" He asked, looking around the group, looking for answers, the others all just rolled their eyes and Ryan and Zeke slapped their foreheads.

"You mean that you gave that speech and you had no ideas as to how we would actually get out of here," Ryan hissed at Chad.

Chad ran his hand through his hair sheepishly and nodded, "Well yeah, I heard the speech on a movie and figured that it would fit in here if I replaced the name with Briella." He shrugged and looked around the rest of the group, who were all just staring at him, dumbfounded.

"Right well then we…" Zeke trailed of as the bathroom door swung open, revealing a tear stained face, as Gabriella hobbled out of the bathroom, her foot all bandaged up, and the bleeding apparently stopped. Their joy was short lived however when Maria appeared behind her daughter, the gun pointing into Gabriella's back.

"All of you over here now," she yelled as the scared teens hurriedly snapped to their feet and ran the short distance across the room to stand in front of Gabriella and her mother, each predicting the worst.

Suddenly, Maria pushed her daughter into Troy's arms, stunning the whole room.

Looking at Troy, she murmured, "Take care of her Troy, your a good boy, I'm glad that she found you, make sure that she's alright." The whole group looked at her confused, especially Gabriella, who was now resting safely inside of Troy's embrace, her eyes peaking over his arms at her mother.

Looking Gabriella dead in the eye, she stuttered, "I'm so sorry Gabriella, so so sorry," she then raised the gun to her own head, causing Gabriella's eyes to widen and her breathing to increase rapidly as she started shaking her head, "I love you Gabriella Montez, never ever forget that," and with her final words said, Maria Montez pulled the trigger.

The loud BANG echoed around the room as Gabriella screamed, collapsing beside her mother, her tiny body wracking with sobs as her friends watched on, helplessly.

"No Mommy! Please don't leave me, please don't leave me Mommy, I cant do this without you, I need you Mommy," Gabriella sobbed as she buried her head in her mother's chest.

The gang all watched on, shaken as to what had just happened and completely powerless to help their friend, who looked so small and vulnerable after loosing her second parent that year, tears started to build up behind all of their eyes as they watched Gabriella completely break down and howl for the loss of her parents…

**Okay guys, that was chapter 10, sorry for the wait but chapter 11 should be up later tonight or tomorrow, my work load is starting to ease off, so I should be able to update more frequently again, but please review and tell me what you thought of the chapter, thanks for reading.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, sorry that it has taken so long to update this again, but I've been completely swamped with more schoolwork, because I have exams coming up soon. Anyway, here's chapter 11, and hopefully Need You More Than Ever should be finished sometime in the next week as there's only about 4 chapters left and two of those are already written. So please read and review.**

**Chapter 11**

Troy slowly sunk down to his knees beside Gabriella and placed one hand on her back, soothingly rubbing it to show that he was there for her, even though he was still shaking and was completely speechless.

Gently, he tried to pry the sobbing girl off of her mother's lifeless form. Gabriella's head whipped up and she turned to glare at Troy, "Get off of me! Just leave me alone, she hasn't left me, she promised, she promised that she would never leave me," she howled, as the rest of the girls wept with her and the guys tried desperately, and unsuccessfully, to wipe away their own tears.

Gabriella suddenly released her mother and flew into Troy's waiting arms, pushing him backwards, so that he was lying on the floor, holding his sobbing girlfriend tightly to him, as he cried tears of his own, not for the woman that Ms. Montez had become, but for the woman that she was before she started drinking. The woman that would always make them brownies when they were all at the Montez household. The woman that would invite the whole gang to stay overnight in a heartbeat, and then would put up with their loud talking into the very early hours of the morning. But most of all, the woman that was Gabriella's last living relative, the one who had been strong and stuck by her for years, up until a few months ago.

Tenderly, Troy lifted Gabriella into his arms and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist as he carried her from the room that held both horrible memories and amazing memories at the same time, and down the stairs. The gang all took one last look at the woman who had been so kind, yet had turned so malicious and followed Troy down the stairs and into the front room.

Jason, who was the last one in the room, gently took the sheet from Gabriella's bed and covered over the still form, before looking at her one last time and walking out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Once they were in the front room, the gang all found a space and sat down, each one just staring into space, trying to contemplate what had just happened, and listening to Gabriella's sobs, as she sat on Troy's lap, her legs still wrapped firmly around his waist and her arms around his neck, her head buried deeply into the crook of his neck and his arms wrapped tightly around her tiny waist, as if he was never going to let her go.

Slowly, Taylor made her way over to the entwined couple and sat down next to Troy, causing him to look up at her as she gave a small, sad smile, which he returned and she gently started to rub Gabriella's lower back in comforting circles.

Sharpay and Kelsi looked at each other, before imitating Taylor's actions, Sharpay sat on the other side of Troy, with her hand soothingly resting on Gabriella's shoulder and Kelsi sitting in front of the couple on the floor, taking over from Taylor in calming the devastated Gabriella slightly, as she started to hiccup through her sobs, her cries intensifying.

Soon enough, the guys also navigated their way over to the group sat on the couch and sat down. The group all clung together, desperately comforting each other, whilst trying to get comfort themselves.

As dusk was setting in, Troy looked down, noticing Gabriella was sleeping peacefully and finally decided that they had to do something.

"Guys, come one guys, wake up," he whispered, his voice still incredibly hoarse, as he tried to wake up the rest of the gang, but leave Gabriella sleeping, figuring that to wake her up after the day that they had all had would be an dreadful thing to do.

One by one, the rest of the gang started waking up, each looking at Troy with big, round, scared eyes, obviously expecting him to be the leader and tell them what to do.

Troy sighed and looked back down to Gabriella, before his eyes found Ryan's and silently begged him to take charge.

Ryan nodded slightly, understanding what Troy wanted him to do. After Troy had figured out that Ryan wasn't going to take Gabriella away from him, the two had become increasingly close, and Ryan was now one of Troy's 'brothers', along with Chad.

Ryan took a deep breath, glancing over all of his friends, their eyes red and puffy from crying, before starting, "Okay guys," everyone jumped at the sound of his voice and Ryan winced slightly. "Shar, Zeke," the two looked at him, giving him their undivided attention, "I want you to call the cops and the paramedics, explain everything that happened, and get them here pronto, we've waited too long already to call them."

The two nodded and Sharpay looked to her brother, "Why do we need the paramedics?" She asked, her face scrunching up in confusion.

Ryan smiled softly at her, "Because Shar, we may all be trying to fool each other that we're all fine, but we're not, we're all still shaking badly and unless you've forgotten, Gabriella has a bullet hole in her foot, and G-d knows what else wrong with her." Troy and Chad both winced at Ryan's words, each feeling guilty for allowing Gabriella's pain to get that far and with the fact that they had not protected their girlfriend, or sister, respectively.

"How could I forget that," Sharpay whispered as she looked at her brother one last time, before meekly turning and walking out of the room and into the kitchen, Zeke giving the gang a minute smile before following his girlfriend, knowing that she would not be able to get through the phone call without breaking down.

Ryan then turned his attention to those left in the room. "Chad, Taylor, Kelsi, Jason," their heads all snapped up to look at him, "I want you to call all of our parents, they're going to be worried and will want to know what the hell has been going on tonight."

The others all nodded, before hurrying out of the room, each shuddering as they passed by the bottom of the stairs.

"Thanks man," Troy murmured, burying his head in Gabriella's hair and breathing in deeply.

"No problem Troy, I'm just glad that we got here in enough time to save her, G-d knows what would have happened if Chad hadn't managed to stop her wrists bleeding, or if her mother had come home to only Gabriella in the house," Ryan stated softly, gently placing a hand on the back of Gabriella's head, looking at her with brotherly love written all over his features.

Troy looked up at Ryan, the tears threatening to fall from his eyes again, "Don't you see Ry? We didn't get here in time, if we had gotten here in time, Ella would never have had to resort to slitting her wrists," he shuddered as he thought about the scene in the bathroom earlier, "If we'd gotten here on time, or paid any attention to her in the past six weeks, none of this would have had to happen in the first place and she may still have her mother around who was sweet and nice to her. If we'd really been here for her, we would've known that her dad had died and we would have tried to help her and her Mom, before Ms. Montez resorted to this," he waved his hand all over Gabriella's cuts and bruises, the tears now flowing freely down his face.

Ryan's face softened as he looked at his newly found best friend, "Troy, you can't blame yourself, as much as any of us may want to blame ourselves, we can't. Gabriella hid this from all of us she was just to damn good about it Troy, there was no way that any of us could have known what was going on. It was not your fault," Ryan finished firmly with a slight shake of the head.

"Then why do I feel like I let her down so badly?" Troy asked, looking disgusted with himself.

Ryan opened his mouth to talk again. "You didn't let me down, you could never let me down," Gabriella muttered, looking directly into Troy's eye and gently taking his face in her hand and forcing him to look at her again when he tried to look away. "You protected me, you're always there to protect me when I need you, if I hadn't pushed you away this time, you would have never left my side, like I said, you're always there for me," Gabriella finished softly, a small smile gracing her features, as she softly leant her forehead against Troy's.

Ryan smiled softly at the pair, unnoticed by them and silently left the room to find the rest of the gang, closing the door quietly behind him and pulling Sharpay and Zeke into the dining room where the others were waiting.

"So?" he questioned.

"The police and the paramedics are on their way double speed," Zeke said quietly, eyeing up each of his friends in turn and noticing how each and every one of them looked completely shattered, which he didn't blame them for, he felt like he could go to sleep right where he was standing, it had been a draining day for all of those involved.

Ryan nodded before turning to the other four, "What about our parents?"

"They're all on their way here," Chad started, finally finding his voice.

"They've got no idea what's going on though, it didn't feel right to tell them over the phone," Jason finished for him as the girls nodded in agreement.

"Okay then," Ryan murmured, taking a seat beside Kelsi at the table and offering her a small smile, before putting his head in his hands and rubbing his eyes.

"Ry," Sharpay started quietly, and Ryan looked up at her, smiling gently for her to continue, "why did you just keep me and Zeke from the front room?"

Everyone turned to look at Ryan as the small smile dropped off of his face once again, "Gabriella's just woken up," immediately everyone's faces lit up, "but she caught the end of Troy and me arguing over whether what happened was his fault, or whether or not he could have prevented it."

The gang's mouths all dropped in shock.

"But there was nothing he could have done! If anything, Troy's always been there for her!" Kelsi said loudly, the shock evident in her voice.

"I know that, you know that, but the only one that can convince Troy of that is Gabster, Kels, so I think that we need to leave them alone for a little bit," Ryan smiled softly as the rest all nodded in agreement and settled in a comfortable silence around the table.

"I didn't protect you this time though Ella, I should have been there for you and instead I broke up with you," Troy's voice cracked halfway through and the tears started to flow freely again.

Gabriella gently leaned in and kissed away his tears before placing a soft, lingering kiss on his lips and looking him directly in the eye again. "The only reason that you weren't this time was because I wouldn't let you be there, I thought that I could do all of this on my own, and looking back, that's one of the biggest mistakes that I could've made, if I'd told you guys earlier, this could have all been stopped before it got anywhere near this stage."

Troy smiled softly and leant his forehead back against hers, "If I can't blame myself Ella, you can't blame yourself either. Deal?"

She smiled slightly and closed her eyes, "Deal."

The two of them sat that way for a while, each trying to figure out the events of the day, and trying desperately to keep their promise to the other and not blame themselves.

After a few minutes, the rest of the gang came in and joined them, the whole gang just sat around, each enjoying the fact that they had the others company. They all looked up however when blue and red lights started to flash across the wall opposite the window, signalling the arrival of the police and the paramedics.

**Well guys, that was chapter 11, please review and tell me what you thought, hopefully I should be able to post again tomorrow.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks so much for all of your reviews! I really appreciate them all. Anyway, I tried to get this up as fast as possible, but my work load is increasing again, but hopefully the next update for this and Returned will be, up tomorrow, anyway, here's chapter 12, please read and review!**

**Chapter 12**

Seeing the flashing lights, the gang all grinned and ran towards the front door as Troy lifted Gabriella up, to carry her, never wanting to let her go again as she buried her head into his shoulder, in an attempt to block out the lights.

The gang could also see all of their parents suddenly arrive, each one flying out of their cars, towards the terrified teenagers and enveloping their children into hugs.

Chad was desperately trying to get out of his mothers arms as she held him in a death grip, crying about how she could have lost her baby. Taylor watched him struggle, a smirk covering her face as he glared at her; from the comfort of her own parents arms.

Kelsi was currently being squeezed by her older brother, who was babbling about how he should have been there to protect her, while her parents tried to gently pull him off, seeing that Kelsi was in dire need of some oxygen. Jason watched his girlfriend with a small smile, glad that she was safe again, while listening to his own sister go on about how he had cost her a date, before pulling him in for a hug and ruffling his hair.

Zeke was presently being held down to the ground by his two younger sisters and brothers, who were sitting on top of him and telling him what a comfy chair he made, occasionally, one of them bouncing up and down, laughing as Zeke groaned and their parents scolded them to get off of their big brother.

Sharpay was crying hysterically with her mother as both Ryan and their dad wrapped their arms around the girls, each trying to comfort them, as Ryan knew that Sharpay was using her acting skills more than anything, even if she was really scared.

Ryan looked up as he rolled his eyes, and his eyes caught on Troy's, who was still standing in the doorway of the house, with Gabriella still in his arms. Ryan gave Troy a small smile and Troy nodded back as he and Gabriella were suddenly assaulted by Troy's parents and Ryan let out a soft chuckle as he saw Troy's eyes nearly pop out of their sockets as his mom wrapped him in a tight hug, Gabriella squirming in the middle, as she tried to find hair and Troy's dad trying to pry her off of the teenagers.

Still looking at Troy, Ryan's expression suddenly dropped, and a look of panic swept over his face as he started to run towards the Bolton's. "Troy," he cried out urgently, causing everyone to look at him, as he sprinted towards Troy at full speed.

Troy looked at him in confusion and Ryan hastily pointed towards Gabriella.

Looking down, Troy could see that Gabriella had gone limp in his arms and her lips were slowly turning blue.

Dread and fear overcame him as he gently lowered her, so that she was lying on the floor and the rest of the gang and their families also rushed over.

"Oh my G-d, look at her foot," Taylor suddenly screamed as she neared the petrifying scene. Everyone's gazes immediately zoomed in on the foot where Gabriella had been shot and most of the group nearly gagged at what they saw, there was blood seeping through the bandages, and Gabriella was obviously losing blood fast, as the paramedics rushed over, pushing everyone out of the way, to see what was going on.

**Okay guys, that was just a short little filler chapter as I have school work to do, but hopefully, the next one should be up tomorrow or the day after, also for those of you reading Returned the next chapter for that should be up tomorrow or the day after as well, so please review and tell me what you thought about this chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews, they really mean a lot to me. Anyway, I had some free time (finally) so I've managed to write chapter 13, please read and review.**

**Chapter 13**

The paramedics pushed everyone back, desperate to get to Gabriella and stop the bleeding. Troy however, was adamant that he was staying with her and it took his dad and Chad to hold him back, so that the paramedics could get near.

As Troy was thrashing around, trying frantically to get away from his dad and Chad and back to Gabriella, the paramedics quickly worked, taking the bandages off of her foot and quickly starting mouth to mouth.

They were constantly murmuring words to each other that none of the gang could understand, and which made them all panic even more. Quickly, one ran back to the ambulance, returning only a moment later with a stretcher as they quickly manoeuvred Gabriella's still limp body onto it and looked back to the rest of the group.

"What are you doing with Gabby?" Chad questioned, his voice hoarse as tears streamed down his face and Troy suddenly stopped thrashing to watch the paramedics.

The first paramedic looked at Chad and cringed slightly, "This girl needs surgery as soon as possible, if she doesn't, the bullet will find it's way into her main blood stream and eventually up to her heart, which will kill her. However, we're not sure if surgery is the answer, it may be that it's too late already." He looked down as he finished and all of the girls burst into hysterical crying, each hugging their families for comfort, as their parents and the guys all looked at the paramedic in shock, trying to digest the information that he had just given them about possibly the sweetest girl that any of them had ever known.

The second paramedic looked at the teenagers, a sad smile gracing her features, "You guys all need to go to the hospital as well, and I mean now. You've all been through a great trauma and you're clearly in shock." They all nodded and started to walk with their parents to their own cars, but Troy stood, rooted to the spot.

"No," he stated strongly, as everyone turned to look at him and he caught the eye of the male paramedic, "I want to go with her, I promised her that I would never leave her alone again and I meant that."

The paramedics turned to Troy's parents, who nodded slightly.

"Alright son, but hurry, we need to be there as fast as possible," and with that, Troy and the paramedics ran back to the ambulance and sped away as the others followed at a slightly slower speed.

Arriving at the hospital, the gang were all rushed off to be examined, before any of them could even ask how Gabriella was doing, or where Troy was.

Coming out of the exam room, still dazed, the gang all drifted into a hallway, one by one, before clutching each other in a massive group hug and subconsciously walking towards the admitting desk, completely ignoring their concerned parents.

"Excuse me," Taylor started politely, and the admitting nurse turned to look at them, smiling reassuringly at the teenagers.

"You're looking for Gabriella Montez right?" She asked, with a soft voice. The group all nodded together as one and she smiled at them again. "She's just gotten out of surgery," as she said this, the whole group physically brightened, "She's currently in room 587, on the fifth floor, if you want to go see her." The nurse smiled again, before turning back to the filing cabinets.

The gang looked at each other before all racing for the lift doors, banging into people left right and centre and knocking each other out of the way as they all tried to barge into the empty lift as one, their parents trying to follow hopelessly behind as the group of teenagers ended up falling into the open lift in a heap, each screaming at least one other.

"If you lot aren't quiet right now, we're taking you all home," Mrs. McKessie whispered, "There are other sick people in this hospital, who need genuine rest."

The gang all mumbled sorry, each looking suitably embarrassed as they helped each other off of the floor.

Mrs. Nielson smiled at them, "It's ok guys, we know that you've had a rough night and you're just concerned about Gabby, but we're going to go home, because we have a feeling that you aren't leaving to soon." The whole group nodded, looking at their parents as if daring them to try and contradict them. Mrs. Nielson smiled again, "However, Chad's parents are up in the cafeteria, if you need anything, because they want to be here for Gabby as well, and I believe that the Bolton's are also there." She finished, looking at the teenagers, that were all nodding, but were each looking at the control buttons, and each one edging closer towards them, before Ryan suddenly lunged, hitting the number five as they all called a goodbye to their parents.

The families all looked at each other and laughed, rolling their eyes, before heading for the door.

As soon as they reached the fifth floor, the whole gang spilled out of the lift and started to race sown the corridor, dodging people and trolleys every minute.

They all came to a screeching halt outside of room 587, except for Chad, who went flying straight past, before coming back up to the gang, his head held low as the rest of the group laughed weakly.

Slowly, Zeke reached out to turn the handle of the door.

"You guys can go in you know," a voice behind them said and the gang all jumped, turning around to see Troy stood behind them with a cup of coffee. He smiled at them weakly, before lightly pushing past them and walking into the room, his expression an extremely sombre one.

The gang all looked at each other before carefully following Troy into the room, seeing him sit down and put his head in his hands beside a sleeping Gabriella, the machines providing the only sound in the room, a rhythmic beeping noise.

"She's ok then right? I mean she's just sleeping," Sharpay tentatively walked nearer to Gabriella and smiled softly, taking one of her hands.

The rest of the gang nodded, each taking a seat and pulling it up to the bed, Chad grinning and patting Troy on the back, "See man, I told you that she'd pull through! I mean she's our Gabs, she can't leave us and she knows that," he grinned.

Troy's head snapped up and he glared at the rest, making their smiles falter, "No Chad she's not alright," he spat, the whole gang looked at him in shock, he'd never spoken to any of them like that before, "she's in a coma Chad, one which the doctors are 99.9 sure she is never going to wake up from." The whole gang turned tearful, "I just don't know what to do, I need her, I can't live without her," Troy's voice broke and he suddenly broke down in sobs, falling to the floor and crying hysterically as Chad knelt down next to him, gently trying to comfort his best friend, Ryan joining him moments later, as the rest of the group started to cry their own tears.

After a few minutes of crying, Troy sat back up in his seat again, the tears still streaming down his face, but his breathing more controlled, as he lovingly took hold of Gabriella's hand again. "Do you guys think that I can have a few minutes alone with Ella?" He asked softly, almost as though he was afraid of the answer. But surprisingly to him, the whole gang nodded, knowing that Troy needed some time alone with her.

"Bye Gabby, don't give up, we need you," Jason said softly as he gave her a tight hug and left the room.

"Come on Gabs, you can pull through this, we know that you can, after all, you're the one that helped us all break the status quo," he bent down and hugged her, whispering in her ear, "and I haven't thanked you for bringing Shar into my life yet." He smiled sadly; straightening up and following Jason, putting a warming hand on Troy's shoulder as he passed.

Kelsi lightly walked up to Gabriella, looking fairly frightened, "G, you can't leave us now, if you do, I'm gonna have to go back to writing plays for brothers and sisters and I don't think that I can take working with Sharpay again," she whispered the last part, but Sharpay heard her and frowned, "we all need you, G, you're the glue that holds this group together, the one that brought us together in the first place." Kelsi quickly bent over and hugged Gabriella, before fleeing from the room and into Jason's arms, the tears flowing freely.

Taylor looked at the others, who gently nodded to her as she slowly approached the bed, taking a hold of Gabriella's hand and gently rubbing her thumb along the back of it. "Brie, you're my best friend, before you, I only had the people on the scholastic team, and they weren't really my friends, they just wanted me there to win for them, but with you, I felt real friendship for the first time, and you brought everyone else into my life, if It wasn't for you, I don't really know where I'd be right now Brie, you're my best friend and I need you. Plus without you, the scholastic team has no chance of beating West High, so we need you, so that we can wipe the floor with them, again, don't forget Brie, you're breaking free," Taylor smiled slightly, finishing on a lighter note, bending down to kiss Gabriella's cheek and giving her hand one last squeeze before going to join the others outside of the room.

Ryan sighed softly, taking hold of Gabriella's free hand and gently placing his other on her head, smiling softly at her, "Hey Gabster, you know that you can't leave us right? We all need you, we've got so much to say thank you for, we all take you way too much for granted, and Kelsi's right, you are the glue that holds us all together, without you I'd still be in Sharpay's shadow and I wouldn't have any of the amazing friends that I now have," he smiled slightly at the others in the room, who smiled back, "you're my true little sister Gabster, and I need you just as much as everyone else, so come back to us." He finished quietly, placing a gentle kiss to her forehead before stepping out of the room.

Sharpay looked at the last two remaining boys, Chad smiled and nodded at her to go next, she gulped slightly and stood up next to the bed. "Boo, you're my best friend, my sister and my saviour, all in one, personally, I think that you're my guardian angel," both Troy and Chad smiled softly, hearing Sharpay's words, hardly able to believe that less than a year ago, she had been the ice princess at their school. "If it wasn't for you Boo, I'd still be a total bitch, sure we may not have gotten off to the best of starts, but now I need you more than anything, and personally I wanted you and Troy to get the parts on the Winter Musical, you two performed it better than Ryan and I could have, although I will never admit that if anyone asks," she smiled again, lightly stroking Gabriella's hair, "I need you Boo, we all need you, otherwise I swear I will become a not nice person again, without you there to keep me on the right track, so wake up, for all of us, angel," Sharpay swooped down and kissed Gabriella gently on the forehead, looking at her one last time before leaving the room.

Chad got up off of his perch on the edge of Troy's chair and quietly walked around to the other side of the room, taking Gabriella's small hand in his own large one and smiling softly. "Hey Briella, little sis, we all need you Briella, even without you here now, we're all falling apart, none of us can do this without you Briella, you need to wake up, not just for all of us, but for yourself as well, you need to show your mother that you are stronger than she is and that you can beat this, because we all know that you can, you're the strongest person any of us know, hell, you even stood up to the ice princess…"

"I heard that!" Sharpay yelled from outside the room, immediately being shushed by the others.

Chad grinned, "See, even now in a coma, you're getting me into trouble, " he sighed and looked at her, a brotherly love surrounding his features, "After I lost my little sister Gabriella, I thought that the world would end and that the sky had fallen, but you pulled me through that, if it wasn't for you, I don't know what I would have ended up doing, you pulled me through it, and I'm going to pull you through as well, even if it's the last thing I do. After I lost Alexia, I thought that I'd never be a big brother again, but you made me realise, that blood doesn't always matter, cause you've always been my little sis, and I will be there to protect you, no matter what, and also, no matter what Ryan says, you're more my little sis than his, " Chad grinned cheekily and kissed Gabriella's temple softly, "I love you Briella, you're my little sister, always, so wake up, so I can beat up some more guys who think they have a chance with you!" Chad grinned before smiling softly at Troy and walking out of the room, hearing the gang laughing softly, glad that he had managed to make them laugh.

As Chad closed the door, Troy sighed and gently brought Gabriella's hand up to his mouth, kissing it affectionately, "Everything they said is true Ella, we need you, you are our glue and our angel, but most importantly, you're my angel and I don't know what I'd ever do with out you princes, you're my whole world Ella, you have to wake up, or I'm coming up there to join you, there's no way that I can live my whole life without you, you are my entire life, the thing that I live for, my world," Troy's voice broke as tears streamed down his face and hit the mattress, along with his and Gabriella's joined hands. "I need you more than ever Ella," he sobbed.

"You lot all talk way too much," a raspy voice said and Troy's head snapped up, his teary cobalt eyes looking straight into Gabriella's bright chocolate ones.

"GABRIELLA!" Troy yelled in shock, knocking the chair over as he stood up abruptly, astonishment covering his features as Gabriella laughed sweetly, music to Troy's ears.

The door burst open and all of the gang stood there, looking truly surprised, before all grinning like maniacs and launching themselves forwards, all of them diving on top of Gabriella, who lay in her bed squealing, as Troy and the others laughed in joy and relief.

"Get off of me," she squealed, "I'm just a very tiny person and you're crushing me," she giggled.

The boys all grinned and pulled themselves off of her, each picking up their girlfriends, who were each refusing to move.

"What is going on in here?" A very stern looking doctor walked into the room and glared at each of the teenagers, before her gaze landed on Gabriella and his mouth dropped.

"Hi," Gabriella grinned making a small waving symbol with her hand, causing all of her friends to laugh and the doctor's mouth to drop further.

"What's up Doc? Never seen someone get out of a coma before?" Gabriella asked innocently, and the doctor ran from the room, yelling that they would be doing some tests in the morning, as the whole gang roared with laughter again.

"Oh, I forgot, I need to go talk to my parents about something, I'll be back in a bit guys," Chad yelled as he grinned at Gabriella and ran from the room.

"Ok, well that was strange," Troy laughed as he lay on the bed beside Gabriella, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder, as she sat up, grinning at him and the others all sat around the bed on the chairs, unable to stop grinning or laughing.

About ten minutes later however, the mood was made quite sombre again as Jason asked a question that had need prying on all of their minds, "Gabby," she turned to look at him, still smiling, "why did your mom say that you said that the last thing that you said to your dad was that you hated him?"

Gabriella's smile fell from her face as the whole gang, Troy included turned to look at her, "Well that's because it was the last ever thing that I said to him," she shuffled uncomfortably and sighed as she knew that she would now have to tell them the story that she wanted to avoid at all costs. "When my dad was called up, he didn't tell me until the day he left," she clasping and unclasping her hands in her lap, her eyes fixated on that one area, "he'd already done three tours of duty, each one lasted for four years, and after the third one, which finished when I was twelve, he promised me that he would never go away again, not ever. But when I was only thirteen, he started to get edgy, and he reenlisted, he was called up five days later, and I told him I hated him for breaking that promise to me. Every time he wrote, I never wrote back, I refused to accept any of his phone calls, and when he was on leave, I would deliberately go and stay with a friend, or just point blanc ignore him. The day that he was shot, I felt so guilty, he was coming home not even a week later, and he hadn't been on leave for about sixteen months. I ignored my dad, the man that I always used to be so close to, even if he was always away, for three years, and I regret that so much, if I had talked to him just once, I could have told him that I didn't hate him, I was just so annoyed that he lied to me, and then I was too damn stubborn to back down, to damn proud." She strated to sob uncontrollably, "I just wanted him to know that I loved him."

Troy wrapped his arms tightly around her and she cried into his chest, "He knew Ella, he knew," Troy whispered soothingly into her ear.

Half an hour later, Gabriella had calmed down, and the group were just talking about any random things from school, to the time when Chad cried for a month because Gabriella accidentally stuck some chewing gum in his hair, and it had to be cut a tiny bit to get it out.

"Briella!" Chad yelled happily, tripping over as he ran into the room, quickly getting up again and hurling his arms around Gabriella as she looked at him in confusion, and the rest of the gang laughed at how much of an idiot he was. Throwing them all a cheeky grin, he turned back to face Gabriella again, "Are you ready to become my sister fully?" He grinned at her as she and the rest of the gang still looked at him, confused.

"Chad what are you talking about?" Taylor asked, eyeing her crazy boyfriend up and down.

"Well you see Taylor," he started, still grinning with one arm around Gabriella's shoulders, "My Mom and Dad have just put in a request to adopt Briella." The whole gang gasped and squealed with happiness as Gabriella grinned.

Her grin quickly fell from her face though as she turned to look at Chad, "Chad, I cant possibly do that, I don't want to impose on anyone," she murmured as she shook her head softly.

Chad just rolled his eyes and pulled her back into a hug, "Briella don't be so ridiculous, my parents love you, they've always thought of you as their own daughter anyway, so they're extremely glad that they can help out. Actually, most of the time, I swear that they like you more than me," he finished with a slight frown as the rest of the gang erupted into laughter, glad that things were finally starting to return to normal.

**Well there was chapter 13, the longest chapter of this story yet, only about 2 more chapters until Need You More Than Ever is finished, so for those of you reading Returned, I'm going to concentrate on getting that updated tomorrow, if I have the time. Anyway please review chapter 13 and tell me what you thought!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews, sorry that I haven't updated this in a while, anyway, here's chapter 14, please read and review and chapter 15 and Chapter 16, the last chapter, should both be out tomorrow.**

**Chapter 14**

One week later and Gabriella had been released from hospital, and although she was still on crutches, she barely ever needed them as Troy insisted on carrying her everywhere, something that Gabriella was currently enjoying, but which could be very aggravating, depending on what she was trying to do, like when he insisted on carrying her to the bathroom. Besides that, she had found that she was perfectly mobile by herself, not that she'd told her friends or the doctors that she'd been attempting it, they'd only tell her that she was slowing down the healing process, but to Gabriella, she needed her own freedom, not to be confined to crutches, or to being carried everywhere.

She was currently sat on the cold hard bench, Troy's arm wrapped tightly around her shoulder, offering some warmth to her numb form as she stared forwards, not daring to look back.

She knew that if she did, all she would see was a sea of black and sympathetic faces to the young girl who had lost nearly everything that she held so close to her.

Today was the joint funeral of both of her parents.

As the service started to draw to a close, Gabriella vaguely felt Troy lean closer to her, and she distantly felt his hot breath in her ear as he asked her if she wanted to say something, the one thing that she did feel however, was the cold tears as they started to make a path down her face, swiftly followed by more tears, as she shook her head and Troy's embrace on her tightened, as it finally sunk in that her parents were no longer with her, that they were never going to be there to see her graduate high school or college, to see her get married, to see her get her first proper job, or to meet there first grandchild.

The silent sobs wracked Gabriella's body as the priest said the final prayer for her parents and the pallbearers, including all of the guys and their dad's, as they were the only family Gabriella had left, stepped up to pick up the coffins, slowly beginning the march out of the church and towards the graveyard, Sharpay's arm immediately taking over from Troy as he left with the others, casting one last look at Gabriella.

Slowly, Gabriella and the girls followed them; Gabriella's head hung low, desperately trying to blot out the concerned stares of people as she passed them.

The procession gradually moved out to the two plots of land that lay side by side, underneath the big, old billowing oak tree, where Gabriella's parents would finally lay to rest, together, side by side for the rest of time.

Troy's arm was soon around Gabriella again as the coffins were gently lowered into the ground and final prayers were said for the deceased. Gabriella's body started to shake more and more as her parents were lowered to rest and the sobs built up inside of her. All Troy could do was hold her as he prayed that she would eventually be alright and would learn how to trust and love people once again, whilst in the care of her friends, the Danforths' and himself.

As everyone else left and the freshly dug graves were refilled, Gabriella couldn't take it anymore and tugged herself out of Troy's arms, sprinting away from everyone that she knew, her now loud sobs echoing throughout the cemetery as she picked up speed.

She could hear the heavy footsteps on the gravel path behind her and knew that Troy and the gang were coming after her, deeply concerned, but if anything, this just made Gabriella run faster, run away from her problems, away from her life, away from everything.

She was abruptly stopped when a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her from behind, and instinctively, she started to struggling, lashing out at the one who held her captive, before she heard Troy whispering the gentle, soothing words to her.

She unexpectedly stopped trying to fight him and burst into fresh hysterics as he turned her around in his arms and held her tightly to him, while whispering loving words in her ear, desperate to clam his hysterical girlfriend.

Troy just stood there, Gabriella wrapped up securely in his arms, listening to her sob, as the heavens opened and the two young lovers were drenched instantly, with the whether deciding to match the sombre mood that now lay around the couple.

Troy looked over his shoulder at his friends and their families, all of who were also getting soaked and motioned for them to go inside either the church or their cars, while he stayed with Gabriella.

Obviously getting Troy's small gesture, the group started to wander slowly away, Sharpay looking over her shoulder every few minutes and smiling as she saw Troy turn back around and give a tender kiss to Gabriella's wet hair.

After a few moments of standing in the same position, Troy realised that Gabriella was mumbling incoherently to herself and bent lower so that he could hear her.

"It was my fault," she mumbled and Troy frowned, bending lower so that he could hear her better, "It was all my fault, if I had never been born, they'd still be alive." Troy's frown deepened and he straightened up as Gabriella started to repeat the phrases to herself again.

"Ella look at me," he said, softly, yet firmly, but she kept her head down, still muttering, "Gabriella look at me," he said fiercely, his voice rising as he battled over the raging wind and rain.

Hearing his tone of voice, Gabriela whimpered slightly, causing Troy to wince, but she looked up at him nonetheless.

When his ocean blue eyes caught on her mocha brown ones, he shuddered, behind her eyes there was nothing. None of the love or the warmth that he was used to seeing, only a vacant expression stared back at him, as though she couldn't even see him.

Gently he unwrapped his arms from her waist and cupped her face in them, shivering at how cold she was. "Gabriella, none of this was your fault," he whispered softly to her and she instantly turned her head away from him.

Re-cupping her face in his hands, Troy forced her to look back into his eyes, "You could have never known that your dad was going to get hit by that bullet, you telling him that you hated him wouldn't have affected his work Ella, I mean he was away when your mom was pregnant with you wasn't he?" she nodded slightly and his hands moved with her. He smiled lightly and kissed her forehead, she responded by closing her eyes unconscientiously, "If anything, I would have thought that that was a bigger distraction, the fact that he could have missed the birth of his first child, but he came home alive that time didn't he?" Gabriella nodded again, her eyes still closed, "And as for your mom Ella, there was nothing that you could have done, I mean, you became her punching bag for over six weeks and you didn't tell anyone because you didn't want anything to happen to her. There was nothing you could have done, Elle, it was just there time." He finished by tenderly kissing the top of her head again.

"No," she muttered, shaking her head violently, "NO!" Gabriella screamed as she started to hit Troy and he stumbled backwards slightly at the force of her blows, but he just allowed her to keep hitting him, knowing that one way or another, she had to let out all of her anger at her parents death.

As she started to sob uncontrollably, she sank to her knees, Troy sinking with her. "Why did they have to leave me Troy? Why? I can't do this on my own," she sobbed and he held her tightly to his chest, gently rocking them back and forth.

"I don't know why they had to leave you Ella, I just don't know, but I do know that you'll never be alone Gabriella Montez, not as long as you live, which you have to keep doing for everyone that loves you so much," Gabriella looked up at Troy, her tears drying slightly as the wind and the rain completely ceased to exist and the only clue that they had been there was the drenched ground and the soaked through teenagers. "I love you so damn much Gabriella Montez," Troy whispered softly against her lips as they meant in a fiery kiss, each showing how much passion and love that they had for each other, right there and then.

"And I love you Troy Bolton," Gabriella responded, gently pulling him in for another kiss.

**Well that was chapter 14, I hope that you all enjoyed it, please review and hopefully the final parts to this story will be up tomorrow!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews, here's chapter 15, please read and review and Chapter 16, the last chapter, should be out sometime this week.**

**Chapter 15**

Gabriella stood in the same space. Staring straight ahead of her, blinking only every so often, as she had done for the past fifteen minutes, feelings and thoughts rushing through her at the place that at one time she had called home, excited about returning, and at others, she had called hell, terrified of returning.

The gang all stood just a small way behind her, each shivering in the cold air, but knowing that they had to let Gabriella do this by herself and they had to just let her know that they were there to support her forever, and that they weren't leaving her side. So far, they had watched the trembling girl manage to walk ten steps off of the sidewalk and onto the property, each silently encouraging her to walk a little further, and eventually reach the house.

They watched on as Gabriella bravely took a deep breath and marched closer to the house, turning around to look at them when she reached the step. Her eyes scanning them all as they nodded at her, each smiling, supporting her as she made the frightening move, until eventually her eyes connected with dancing blue ones, perhaps the one who was the most proud of her out of the whole group.

Her eyes bore into his and he ultimately got the message, walking over to her and wordlessly placing one hand around her waist, smiling at her again and kissing the top of her head gently as she also turned around, and reached her hand up towards the door, pressing the handle down so that it swung open lightly, jumping when the door let of a squeaking noise and Troy's arm tightened around her waist.

Taking another deep breath, Gabriella edged towards the house, pulling Troy with her and closing her eyes as she entered the front hallway.

"Ella, it's ok, I promise you that you can look and nothing bad will happen," a reassuring voice whispered to her, and Gabriella opened her eyes, so that she was directly looking into Troy's cerulean ones, as he flashed her one of his winning smiles, meaning that she couldn't help but smile back.

Breaking his gaze and looking around the bottom floor of her house, Gabriella gasped, her eyes widening as she brought her hands up to her mouth in astonishment.

"But…but…how?" She stuttered, glancing back at her grinning friends, before looking around the rooms again, the rooms that now looked exactly as they had when Gabriella and her Mom had lived in the house in harmony together, without the empty alcohol bottles littering every single available surface.

Chad walked forwards and slung his arm casually around Gabriella's shoulder as she looked up at him, still in shock, "Well Briella, we really can't take much of the credit, our Mom's did a hell of a good job tidying out, while we were at the hospital with you, helping you recover," he grinned at her cheekily and laughed when both she and Troy raised their eyebrows, remembering how Chad spent the whole of Gabriella's hospital visits picking at her hospital food, and then ending up battling out games on the Xbox 360 with her, definitely not letting her get any rest.

Taylor rolled her eyes and pushed Troy away, gently linking her arm through Gabriella's as the young girl turned to look at her. Taylor grinned at Gabriella, "Of course Chad can't take any of the credit for any of this, but the rest of us can," she grinned again as Gabriella looked at her in confusion, "the rest of us all helped our Mom's to tidy out the house, and as for Troy, it was his idea in the first place." Taylor smiled at Troy, before unlinking her arm and standing next to Kelsi again.

Chad looked at Taylor in horror, "I did help to, thank you very much," he stuck his tongue out at Taylor, as he finished his childlike statement, "I kept Briella busy at the hospital, so that she wouldn't figure out what you guys were up to," Chad grinned triumphantly as the gang all rolled their eyes, laughing good naturedly.

Gabriella walked up to Troy and stood in front of him. "You thought of all this?" She questioned him, as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "For me?" She finished, her eyes sparkling with wonder. He nodded his head slowly. Gabriella grinned and stood up on her tiptoes, capturing his mouth with hers as her arms snaked up around his neck, grinning into the kiss, Troy wrapped his arms securely around her waist.

"Awwwwww," Troy and Gabriella broke away quickly, blushing and looked at the gang, the girls with pearly white smiles, who looking like they had been eating sweet things for hours on end and the guys with scrunched up faces, looking as though they were going to throw up from the couples cuteness.

"Can we please get to work before you two make us all throw up already?" Ryan queried, his face still scrunched up as he looked at the pair, who laughed as he gasped when Sharpay hit him over the back of his head. "Owwww," he whined, glaring at his sister who just smirked at him smugly while the rest of the gang howled with laughter.

"Well then G, you're gonna have to tell us what to do, we need to know what you want kept and what you don't," Kelsi said softly, her eyes connecting with Gabriella's as she nodded slightly and the laughter died.

"Ummm, well then…" Gabriella trailed off, her eyes glancing around the rooms as she felt Troy squeeze her lightly. "Right, well Jason and Kelsi, can you two please look at the kitchen, and umm, can you please pack up to move any pictures and my Mom and Dad's wedding china, which you'll easily be able to tell apart from the rest, other than that, everything can just be packed into the charity boxes, food included," She finished with a slight smile as the two nodded and she turned to Taylor and Chad, who was currently eyeing Taylor up and down, and not paying any attention at all, "Tay, Chad."

Chad jumped about a mile in the air and turned to sheepishly look at Gabriella, blushing slightly as she smirked at him.

"Can you two please tackle the front room, save any pictures, ornaments, DVD's, CD's and books, other than that, the rest is for charity," Gabriella thought for a minute, "Ooh but save the pillows as well!" She yelled as an after thought, blushing as everyone just laughed slightly and the pair nodded.

"Okay ummm," She turned to look at the remaining four, gripping Troy's hand tightly, "Ryan, can you please do the hallways, all I want is the pictures, and I think that that's all there'll be there anyway, and can you please do the same for the dining room, only take the good glasses from there as well," she grinned at him as he nodded, "Pay, Zeke, can you two please just do my room, I obviously want to keep everything, so can you please just package everything up for me?" The two nodded and she beamed at them.

"Gabs, what about the bathrooms?" Zeke asked.

"Umm Zeke, this was an all girls house, so my suggestion would be that the girls empty out the bathrooms later," The girls all crowed with laughter as the boys looked at the ground, shuffling their feet in embarrassment.

However, the mood was suddenly turned ominous with a quiet question from Taylor, "Brie, who's going to look at your Mom's room." Everyone drew in a sharp breath as they turned to Gabriella, who had her eyes closed to stop the tears, which were now threatening to fall.

"I want to do it." She stated in a strong voice that shocked them all.

"Ella are you sure that you're up to that, I mean…" A tugging on his hand instantly cut of Troy and he looked down to Gabriella.

"I. Want. To. Do. It." Gabriella stated evenly, her eyes never leaving Troy's, "but I want you there with me," she finished, her voice wavering slightly towards the end and Troy just nodded, never breaking eye contact with his girlfriend.

The gang quickly spread out to do their separate chores, leaving Troy and Gabriella to gradually edge their way closer to her Mom's room, each fairly terrified over what they would find in there. Although the house had been cleaned from top to bottom while Gabriella was in hospital, everyone had made the unanimous decision to leave her Mom's room alone.

Troy leaned on the wall halfway along the corridor, watching as his girlfriend slowly, but steadily reached out a trembling hand and turned the door handle, bracing herself against what might be inside of the room, before letting out a startled gasp and hurrying inside.

Troy's eyes widened in shock and he rapidly followed Gabriella into the room, he too gasping at what he saw, letting his eyes wander around the room in wonder.

The room looked like the safe haven that Gabriella had always thought of it before her life had turned to torment. The pictures of her whole family were still up all over the room, her Mom's favourite ornaments still standing were they always had been, each and every time they moved, they always ended up in the same position and the room looking picture perfect, not even a pillow out of place, except for the thin layer of dust that covered almost every surface.

Gabriella let a smile light up her face as she wandered around the room, her hand gently running over the many surfaces of drawers and cupboards, picture frames and weaved baskets, before lowering herself onto the bed and breathing in her mothers scent.

Troy smiled at her before sitting down next to her, "So, where do we start?" His eyes slowly wandered around the room again, but his attention was quickly brought back to Gabriella when he heard a small sniffle from the girl currently sat beside him. "Hey baby girl, what's up?" He asked tenderly, pulling her onto his lap, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes and lovingly kissing her temple.

"I… I just don't think… don't think that I… can get rid of their stuff," Gabriella sobbed, burying her head in the crook of his neck.

"Elle Belle, didn't the Danforth's tell you that you could take over as much stuff as you want?" He smiled when she mumbled something incoherently into his neck, "Well then, let's pack everything up then!" She looked up at him, shock emanating from her delicate features, making him laugh gently, "Ella, I would be able to understand you with just one look, never mind if you're only mumbling, and you obviously want to keep all of this stuff," He finished by kissing her lips and she grinned at him.

"Well, let's not get too hasty, I can't take everything with me, maybe just the pictures, ooh and the ornaments, but what about the bed throw? And I definitely need the pillows…" Troy chuckled and moved to find the boxes, as Gabriella kept listing everything that she needed to keep and couldn't live without.

Eventually, they had packed up the whole room, except from the major furniture, such as the bed and drawers, Gabriella eventually deciding that she would keep most things, except for the curtains, the bed duvet, though she did keep the throw, some of their paintings, and only keeping one jumper of each of her parents clothes, deciding that the homeless and other charities could use them a lot more than she could. Troy had had to smile at his girlfriend, even in times of distress, Gabriella was showing just how caring she was, thinking of others, when she was clearly in pain herself.

However, the one thing that Gabriella was determined that she was keeping of both of her parents was their perfumes and colognes, respectively, so that she could always have their scents with her, wherever she went.

When they had finished with the room, Troy and Gabriella stood just outside of the wardrobe, each hoping that the other would go in first, and each scared to death of what they would find.

After a game of rock, paper, scissors, to decide who would go in first it was determined that Gabriella was the chosen one. So, shooting one last death glare at Troy, she slowly walked into the wardrobe, turning on the light, Troy close at her heels.

Each breathed out a sigh if relief when they just saw more clothes, along with a couple of boxes, which seemed to be filled with precious memorabilia. When the cupboard was empty, Troy bent down so that Gabriella could sit on his shoulders, and then lifted her up, so that she could see right to the back of the top shelf.

Frowning, she reached forwards and picked up the lonely pink book, covered in dust, before motioning for Troy to put her back down. As he did so, she blew the dust off, which set them both of coughing, and eventually laughing, before running her hands over the front cover.

"Gabriella," She slowly breathed out as Troy watched her trace the glittery pink lettering on the front cover and sit down on the floor opening the book.

Gently, Troy lowered himself so that he was sat cross-legged beside her, and brought her onto his lap, so that he could see the book as well. Gabriella slowly skimmed over all of the pages, taking in her parent's detailed accounts of her first steps, of her first words, right down to the first time that she was rushed to the emergency room for swallowing a block of Lego when she was 15 months old. She carefully turned each fragile page, running her fingers softly over the laughing faces of her parents in each picture, that littered every page, and her own little baby face, full of innocence and wonder.

Troy smiled seeing all of Gabriella's baby pictures together on one place, and seeing how contented that she was just trying to remember some of the past.

As she turned to the last page, a spare photograph fell out of the back. Slowly leaning forwards, Gabriella picked it up, letting out a laugh, her eyes sparkling as she remembered what was going on when the picture was taken.

The rest of the gang took that moment to enter the room, telling the other two that they were finished with their jobs and smiling when they saw Gabriella grinning at the picture and Troy gesturing for them all to come and join the pair on the floor.

"Tell us the story Ella," Troy whispered into his girlfriends' ear as the rest of the gang sat around them and she turned the picture so that they could all see.

They all laughed seeing a Gabriella, aged around four, sitting in between both of her chuckling parents, grinning wildly with chocolate sauce and whipped cream all down her front and all over her face, a massive stack of pancakes sat in front of her, covered in the same ingredients.

Gabriella smiled, turning the picture around so that she could see it again, "it was my fourth birthday," her face creased into another smile, "My parent's decided that they would finally give into my request to go to the new pancake restaurant in town. When we got there, the waitress gave me a kids menu, of course, but I wasn't exactly pleased with that and I started to argue with her that I was a big girl and I could handle the big menu," The gang all laughed, imaging the young Gabriella arguing with someone four times her age or older. "In the end I won, obviously because I pulled the fake water works, which got my parent's every time," the gang all laughed again, "and I decided that I didn't want the breakfast pancakes, instead I wanted the sweet ones, somehow I managed to get my own way again, and when they came, they were enormous, or at least they were to me at the time, and I managed to get them everywhere, as you guys can obviously see," she laughed, showing them the picture again, "and I told the waitress that she hadn't put enough chocolate sauce on my last pancake, of course I annoyed her even more, she already hated me by that point, Michelle, her name was, she was also my babysitter, and I hated being left with a babysitter when I was little, or rather I hated being left with Michelle, basically cause she would yell at me if I made any tiny little noise, while she was constantly talking to either her boyfriend, or just her friends, so that day at the pancake house, I decided to get my own back…" Gabriella trailed of, a twinkle forming in her eyes as the others all laughed.

"Briella, what did you do?" Chad asked, sounding slightly scared, considering that he was going to have to live with her soon.

Gabriella grinned at them, "As soon as Michelle gave me the chocolate sauce bottle, some of it may have just happened to end up on her nice clean designer clothes, bringing me the sauce was the last thing to do for her shift, so she'd already been changed, and let's just say that her nice shiny blonde hair weren't blonde no more…" Gabriella trailed off, her eyes still twinkling as the others all laughed so hard Gabriella was sure that something was wrong with them.

"Gabs that's just pure priceless," Zeke finally managed to choke out and Gabriella sent him a beaming smile.

"Hey guys," she started, about twenty minutes later, after reminiscing for a little longer, "I think I'm ready to get out of here." The others all nodded and each grabbed one of the remaining boxes in her parent's room, before heading down to load up their cars, Troy stopping to give Gabriella a quick kiss.

Gabriella stood and studied the room for a little longer, her eyes shining with memories of the year that she had lived in this house, both good and bad. She hugged the pink book to her chest, gently placing the free photograph from the pancake house on top of the table beside the front door, taking one last look around.

"I'll always love you Mommy, and I'll always love you Daddy," She whispered, taking one last look at the photograph, before smiling and walking out of the front door, closing it behind her.

The gang all stood leaning against their cars, just looking at the house as Gabriella came to join them, Troy wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"Seems different somehow," Sharpay murmured, her eyes still fixated on the house as everyone else nodded in agreement.

Kelsi smiled, "I guess we'll always have good and bad memories of this place." The others all murmured their agreement, before Troy flashed them one of his smiles.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road, we've still gotta get all of this stuff unloaded in Ella's new room, so lets go!" He yelled and the others all laughed.

Zeke and Sharpay pulled away first, Jason and Kelsi shortly after them, Ryan close behind.

"See you at the house," Taylor grinned at Gabriella, giving her one last hug and whispering in her ear, "You're so damn brave Brie, I wish I was as brave as you are," before slipping into Chad's car and they too pulled away.

"Ready to go baby girl?" Troy asked, holding Gabriella's door open for her as she nodded, and he helped her into his truck, before running around the other side and starting up the truck, flashing her a grin, which she returned gladly.

Gabriella watched out of the back window of the truck as the house disappeared from view, knowing that she had finally, for good and for bad, closed the chapter of her life that was living there with her Mom.

Three and a half hours later and the whole gang had finally just left, except for Chad, obviously as he now lived with Gabriella, who had wandered downstairs in search of food.

Gabriella looked around her new room and was proud of the way that it had been a group effort to make it how it was. The gang had all painted it three days after the funeral, each having different ideas of how it should look, so now Gabriella had parts of all of her friends all over her room, as they had ended up getting into a massive paint fight, each wanting the room to be their favourite colour, so it was now littered with yellow spots, as that was what she had wanted, orange spots, courtesy of Troy, blue spots, thanks to Zeke, silver spots, due to Ryan's new obsession, cream because Kelsi thought that Gabriella suited natural colours best, purple spots, as Taylor thought that the colour somehow 'summed' Gabriella up, green spots, pure and simply as it was Jason's favourite colour, red spots because Chad thought that she needed to show some Wildcat spirit, and of course, pink spots, because who could live without pink? according to Sharpay. But Gabriella wouldn't have it any other way, in simple terms, she loved her new room, it summed the gang up so well, best friends, yet people who were each completely different from each other.

Gabriella smiled and paused and the task she was currently doing, turning around only slightly.

"So you've learnt that you can do that trick here to then, huh?" Gabriella smirked at Troy, watching as he leant on the side of her balcony doorframe.

He laughed and walked over to her, "Mmm maybe I can, actually, that tree's a lot easier to climb than you're old one," He grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as she finished sorting out her stuffed toys'. "Besides, you're my next door neighbour now, so that's just gonna mean that I can increase my visits," he grinned as she straightened herself upright, pleased with her work and nodded, squealing as he suddenly picked her up, carrying her towards the bed while she wriggled in his arms, giggling as he dumped her and crawled onto the bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her petite frame. "So then Montez," he grinned when she shifted so that she was lying on top of him, both now facing the ceiling, "Do you think that you're gonna like living here?"

She rolled over so that she was facing him and beamed. "With you right next door Bolton, what's not to like?" She smirked again and leant down to kiss him.

A sudden crash from downstairs, followed by Mrs. Danforth yelling at Chad to stay away from the food until dinnertime quickly broke the couple apart, due to laughter, "And with that for entertainment, I can definitely get used to it!" Gabriella grinned at Troy, gently leaning her head on his chest and falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, more glad than ever for her friends, or as she now thought of them, her family.

**Well that was chapter 15, please read and review and the last chapter should be up soon.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Need You More Than Ever**

**Hiya guys, well this is the last chapter of Need You More Than Ever, thanks so much for reading it and thanks a lot to anyone who reviewed. The song is I've got you by McFly. So anyway, here's the last one, please read it and tell me what you thought for a final time. Also as this is the last chapter, I want to dedicate it to AniimeChiick and Samanta1024, your reviews always make me smile and I want to say thanks for taking the time to review each chapter.**

**Chapter 16**

One year later and thankfully, things had returned pretty much back to normal for the gang, Chad and Gabriella had started to bicker a little bit more than what they used to, but that could only be expected as they now had to live with each other, as well as hang out, but the brother sister love connection was still there, even if they now had enough blackmail on each other to control the other for the rest of their lives, such as when Chad walked in on Gabriella in the shower, which Troy nearly killed him for, or when Gabriella listened in on Chad's phone call to Taylor, which Taylor nearly killed her for.

Other than that, the gang had tried to forget the incidents that had happened the year previous and were now desperately looking forward to graduating East High in the next few months, before all starting UCLA together in the fall.

_The world would be a lonely place  
Without the one that puts a smile on your face  
So hold me 'til the sun burns out  
I won't be lonely when I'm down_

On that fateful day when Gabriella had lost the rest of her biological family, and had nearly died after the operation, the gang all learned a very valuable lesson.

They needed Gabriella. Plain and simple. As Kelsi put it, she was the glue that held them all together; she was all of their best friend, and their little sister, to troy, the love of his life, who they needed to look out for no matter what.

But most importantly of all, she was the one that made them all laugh, or smile, when they needed it the most.

After Ryan and Sharpay's grandmother had died, who they were both very close to, Gabriella was the first of everyone they knew to get them to crack a smile, simply by finding a video of them when they were younger, putting on a performance for their grandmother, and then commenting on how Sharpay had been bossy even back then, as she watched three year old Sharpay throw a plastic crown at Ryan's head for not acting like her servant, as she told him to.

Two and a half months ago, when Jason broke up with Kelsi because he was terrified of what he was feeling for her, Gabriella was the first one that Kelsi had called, and they had sat together all night, devouring tub after tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Gabriella never once complaining as she held Kelsi when she cried, whispering soothing words to her and listening to everything that she had to say, whether it was complete nonsense, or complete sense.

She had been the one later the next day to go round to Jason's house and yell at him for being such an idiot, but then to listen to what he had to say and comfort him for the feelings that he was petrified of.

She was the one who helped plan Jason's midnight cruise with Kelsi, simply to win her back. And it had worked.

_'Cause I've got you to make me feel stronger  
When the days are rough and an hour feels much longer_

She was the one who was always there for the rest of the gang, no matter what they were going through, she was always there to help.

When the whole group had had a the biggest fall out in the history of the group, bigger than World War Two, according to Chad, simply because they had all thought that the others had stood them up, because times to meet up were passed around the group wrong, courtesy of Chad and Jason, by mistake, Gabriella was the only one who was willing to admit that she was wrong, and to say sorry to all of the others, eventually managing to get the whole gang back together.

_I never doubted you at all  
The stars collide, will you stand by and watch them fall? (by and watch them fall)  
So hold me 'til the sky is clear  
And whisper words of love right into my ear_

She had been there for Troy, when his Dad was completely going haywire about the whole basketball thing, making Troy practice practically twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, to the point where he never saw his friends, and nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Even though everyone could see it, Gabriella had been the one to tell Coach Bolton that enough was enough and he needed to let Troy be a kid as well as training, she had gained his respect for that and thankfully he had listened to her.

She had been the one to sneak over to Troy's house in the dead of the night, and hold him as he sobbed out all of his pain, disappointed in himself, for feeling like he had let down his Dad when they lost a game. She had sat up with him the whole night, whispering to him over and over again that she loved him and that she, and everyone else, including his Dad, would always be proud of him, as long as he always tried his best. He had promised her that same night.

_'Cause I've got you to make me feel stronger  
When the days are rough and an hour feels much longer  
Yeah when I got you  
Oh to make me feel better  
When the nights are long they'll be easier together_

They'd all been there together when the dreadful news had come through that one of the coaches coming back from a trip to New York had crashed and ten East High seniors had been killed in the collision.

Each of the gang had known at least one of those killed, and they had all crawled up together on Gabriella's bed, clinging to each other for dear life at the thought of the injustice which had happened that day, ten young lives, barely beginning ended so suddenly. But as horrible as it may be, the thought on all of the gang's minds had been, what if that was one of us?

It was true that if the gang had managed to get their slips in on time, that it may have been any one of them who could of died, and the others all knew that they needed everyone in the gang in order to survive, without each other, they were nothing.

It was also true that they had come the closest to losing Gabriella again that day as well.

Being the studious one that she was, Gabriella had managed to get her slip in on time, and the gang had urged her still to go without them, and have fun with her friend Isabella, brining them back souvenirs instead. They all clung onto Gabriella, desperately thankful that at the last minute, she had withdrawn her slip, without telling the gang as they would have told her not to, as she believed that she couldn't survive even two and a half weeks without the gang by her side. The most terrifying thought to the gang though, was the fact that Isabella and her partner Janine had been two of those killed. Gabriella had been originally Isabella's partner and Janine had taken her place on the trip, they had come inches within losing Gabriella that day.

_Looking in your eyes  
Hoping they won't cry  
And even if they do  
I'll be in bed so close to you  
Hold you through the night  
And you'll be unaware  
But if you need me I'll be there_

However, there were times when all Gabriella needed were her friends around her. Most of those times being in the dead of the night, when she would wake up screaming and crying in a cold sweat, reliving the most horrendous six weeks of her life.

Those were the times when Chad would hold his little sister close to him, his heart breaking as he felt her tremble and shake with sobs into his chest.

The times when Chad would phone up the rest of the gang, and the only two words he would have to say were 'code yellow', her favourite colour, before hanging up, and the rest of the gang would all stumble out of bed at an increasingly fast speed, and run the distance to the Danforth household, each quickly scaling the tree and entering Gabriella's room through her balcony.

The second one there was always Zeke, as he lived just out the back of the Danforth's, and he would wait for everyone else, helping any of the girls that got stuck climbing the tree, and making sure that everyone had gotten there safely, calling them if they didn't show up within twenty minutes, to check that they were alright, often finding that Jason had fallen asleep against some lamppost on the way over to the house.

The first there, however, was always Troy, he'd be there in an instant. He'd gently pry Gabriella out of Chad's arms, shushing her as he lay back on the bed with her and tried to get her to sleep again.

Once she was safely asleep in his arms, always fitfully though, never calm after a night of her dreams, the rest of the gang would take it in turns to stay up and keep watch over her.

Troy, always being the first on guard, would watch as Gabriella's chest gently rose and fell with her breath, and he would pray every time that he would never have to see her go through that much pain again, and that she would eventually stop having the dreams.

If she ever did have reoccurring dreams in the same night, the rest of the gang were always there for her to comfort her and keep her safe, gently talking or singing to her, so that she would not wake up and would go back to sleep.

The Danforths' always knew that all of the teenagers were sneaking into their house, and they were just glad that Gabriella and Chad both had friends that they could easily rely on and trust. They'd often walk into Gabriella's room in the morning and laugh, as they would see Gabriella securely tucked up in Troy's arms on the bed, his head resting on top of hers, and hers in the crook of his neck. They would find Chad and Taylor lying full length on the couch, Taylor on top of Chad, as he softly snored. Ryan would always be propped up against the balcony doors, his head drooped and his hat pulled low over his eyes. Sharpay and Zeke had taken to making a bed out of Gabriella's many pillows and comforters, and would lie like that on the floor, Sharpay always on Gabriella's side, so that she could be there for her friend, if Gabriella needed her. And lastly, Kelsi and Jason would always be snuggled up together on Gabriella's chair, a comforter pulled up around Kelsi's neck as she pressed herself tightly into Jason's side, his arm wrapped firmly around her.

But the Danforths' never once yelled at the kids for this arrangement, and nor did the other parents; they knew that they needed to be with each other, for comfort reasons. So they would just shut the door again and start to ring around everyone's households.

_Yeah I got you  
Oh to make me feel stronger  
When the days are rough and an hour feels much longer  
Yeah when I got you to make me feel better  
When the nights are long they'll be easier together_

Gabriella laughed as she watched her friends get tangled up in a game of twister. She may have lost her biological family, but she knew that she was right where she belonged. She was with her true family, the gang. She laughed again as Taylor manoeuvred herself so that she was hovering over Chad and Chad made some sly comment that made Taylor go to hit him. She knew that whether she wanted them there for her or not, no matter how much she tried to push them away, they were always going to be there, to catch her when she fell. Her laughter reached hysteria as the gang all toppled over on top of each other, courtesy of Sharpay trying to move her left foot.

The gang all looked at each other before racing over to Gabriella and piling on top of her, each one laughing as she squealed at them to get off of her. Gabriella knew that they were there for her, now and for forever.

_Oh and I got you_

**Finally it's finished! And it's a happy ending, which I knew that I was gonna have it be all the way through, do you really think I could have killed Gabriella, or any of the gang? Anyway I just want to say thank you to all of you that reviewed the chapters. This is probably one of the only stories that I have ever managed to finish, usually I would get bored half way through and give up, but your reviews really kept me going, so thanks so much and for the last time, please review and tell me what you thought. Also I'm sorry for the marathon author notes on each chapter, I'm sure that they probably irritated you all.**

**If you review, can you please tell me whether or not you think that I should consider writing a sequel to this story!**

**The summary for a sequel: The gang are all in their junior year at UCLA, and are having a ball. The guys have one apartment off the campus and the girls all share another, Troy and Gabriella are even engaged to be married straight after graduation. The gang are all the happiest that they have ever been. However when the girls get an unexpected visitor, who brings them unwanted drama, will that all change? In an instant.**


	17. Sequel

**Heya guys, this is just a quick authors note to say thanks for all of your reviews and that the sequel has been posted, it's called Need You Now, so check it out and tell me what you think!**


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